President Donald Trump downplayed concerns over the lack of guardrails on the artificial intelligence industry and said the U.S. needs to keep up with China in the race to expand the emerging technology — despite growing fears shared by tech developers last week.
“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump told reporters Sunday in Doonbeg, Ireland. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins.”
The president, visiting his golf club there as it hosts the Irish Open, brushed off the concerns raised by those in the industry, saying there are “a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up … and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”
Following reports of rogue AI agents hacking companies and strong words of caution from several developers inside some of the leading AI companies, lawmakers and AI executives are now pushing for renewed focus and regulation.
Trending
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday echoed Trump’s fears that hitting pause on AI development would allow China to surpass the U.S.
Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union” that there is an “obvious corporate responsibility” for AI companies to institute their own guardrails, but he said the “the leaders and the providers of all these platforms” need to meet with Congress to “sit down and figure out what the right balance is.”
U.S. and Chinese AI companies have jockeyed for the lead in advancing the technology since early 2025, according to Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index.
“The U.S. still produces more top-tier AI models and higher-impact patents, while China leads in publication volume, citations, patent output, and industrial robot installations,” the April report said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the White House on Sept. 24. Trump told reporters Sunday that he and Xi “have a great relationship” — rebuffing a question on whether he is concerned that Xi might cancel the trip over a potential U.S. arms deal with Taiwan.
In contrast to Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told ABC’s “This Week” that he believes Congress should step in more directly to address AI safety concerns.
“We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down … the pace of development in order to protect the American people,” Jeffries said Sunday — adding that AI will be a “high priority” for an upcoming Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google Deepmind Chair Demis Hassabis and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk have all called for independent oversight on AI and slowing development.
Amodei penned an essay, released Saturday, calling for companies to partner with the federal government, which he said could serve as an “evaluator” that implements safety regulations or as a mediator between tech corporations in the process of establishing standards.
Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’d spoken with several of these leaders, and while all of them agree guardrails are necessary, they have “very different ideas on what that looks like.”
Over the past decade, AI has been top of mind for tech leaders racing to create the most refined version of their programs, but public calls from developers over the safety and ethical concerns thrust the topic into the spotlight last week.
Jacob Coxon, the Anthropic researcher who quit and took to social media to issue an urgent warning that the race between the AI industry leaders was at risk of spiraling out of control, told The Washington Sun he felt like he was “contributing to the potential death race.”
“There’s a lot of talk about ‘mutual slowing down’ — but everyone has still got their heads down, just going as fast as they can,” Coxon said.
In a social media thread that has gained more than 170 million views as of Sunday, Coxon wrote Tuesday that the tech race could make a “self-improving superintelligence” and that companies are “gambling with our lives.”
Anthropic’s alignment science lead, Evan Hubinger, backed up Coxon’s warning, writing that they “really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.”
“I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,” Hubinger wrote Tuesday on X.
AI alignment researchers like Hubinger try to ensure that the intelligence systems mirror the goals, values and behaviors of humans, while also carrying humanity’s ethical principles.
Author
