Trump rejects AI slowdown, says 'whoever wins AI wins'

US President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed growing industry pressure to slow artificial intelligence development, declaring that Washington must maintain its technological edge over Beijing because "whoever wins AI wins." Speaking to reporters, he acknowledged that authorities "can put guardrails" on emerging technologies, but insisted that "a lot of negative forces" are exaggerating hypothetical risks that may never materialize.

Industry safety warnings

The US president's remarks came as prominent technology leaders, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei, have urged developers to moderate the pace of deploying increasingly autonomous systems. Amodei published an essay Saturday arguing that companies should deliberately slow capability advancement, a position Altman endorsed while pledging similar safety practices at his firm, according to industry reports. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk have likewise supported more controlled development, citing reports that advanced AI has been exploited for cyber intrusions, foreign propaganda, and dual-use biological research.

US-China summit preparations

Trump separately addressed preparations for a bilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for Sept. 24, rejecting speculation that Beijing might cancel the high-level meeting. "No, I have with him great relationship. He wants to get along and we want it. We're going to get along," he said.

The US president said Beijing has acted "very fair with us over the last number of years," while asserting that previous administrations under Joe Biden and Barack Obama allowed China to take "tremendous advantage" of Washington. Trump visited China in May before extending the September invitation to Xi.