Trump Rejects AI Slowdown Calls, Prioritizes China Competition

President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected calls from leading artificial intelligence executives to slow the development of advanced AI models, arguing that maintaining the United States' competitive edge over China is the top priority. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Ireland, Trump acknowledged the possibility of guardrails but dismissed many safety warnings as being raised by "negative forces" and predicted outcomes that "won't happen." The president's comments came a day after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a blog post urging the industry to slow its pace of development to allow safety measures to catch up. Amodei's call was swiftly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who runs xAI. Amodei outlined a plan that includes using third-party evaluators and asked the U.S. government to block advanced chip sales to China. Trump framed the issue as a global race. "We're leading China in AI... and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins," he said. He did not provide specific details on what regulations his administration might pursue.