Trump and Johnson reject calls to slow frontier AI development
The US president and House Speaker Mike Johnson argue that restrictions could hand China an advantage in the strategic race over artificial intelligence.
Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have rejected calls from technology executives to slow frontier artificial intelligence development, framing the debate as a contest between the United States and China.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called in an open letter for companies to “pace the frontier” and slow AI development. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Elon Musk publicly supported the proposal, while Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis offered tentative backing.
Trump dismissed the case for slowing development, according to remarks reported by the Financial Times and presented by The Verge. He said the US was leading China in AI and that “whoever wins AI, wins”.
Johnson made a similar argument in comments to CNN, also reported by The Verge. He warned that rushing to impose restrictions could become a “national security threat” and said an emergency congressional effort to regulate AI would mean the US would “lose the race to China”.
The supplied material does not specify the scope or timing of Amodei’s proposal. Claims about US leadership, China overtaking the US and the national security consequences of regulation remain assertions made in the political debate.
