'Don't kill the Golden Goose': Trump says US must keep its AI lead over China

US President Donald Trump has rejected calls for a slowdown in artificial intelligence development, saying the United States must protect its lead over China.

Trump's comments came days after Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, warned that the industry should slow its rapid development to give safety measures time to catch up.

Trump said the only AI "guardrails" needed were a strong president and existing government powers. 

He said his administration had already stopped AI companies from doing "bad, or potentially bad" things and would continue to do so.

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"The Trump Administration has stopped AI "people" from doing bad, or potentially bad, "things," like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a "perfect little angel" - and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!" he said.

The US President also accused critics of AI and data centres of being part of a "SICK conspiracy".

"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China," he said. "WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!" Trump added. "We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so."

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Trump also warned what he called "Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers" to "BEWARE!"

In another post, Trump said the backlash against AI and data centres was happening because the United States was far ahead of other countries. "The only reason the AI/Data Center outburst is happening is because the United States is leading, by a lot, every other country," he said. "Don’t kill the Golden Goose!"

Amodei's AI Safety Warning

Amodei had called for a temporary slowdown in AI development, warning that AI could become capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet within six to 12 months.

He said in a post on his website that Anthropic was already taking steps to increase checks on AI, while other measures would require coordination across the industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian governments.

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong," Amodei said.

Concerns about increasingly powerful AI systems have grown both inside and outside the industry. Reports have highlighted systems that can solve problems beyond human capacity, while raising concerns that they could go rogue or carry out harmful tasks.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also said his company would wait until next year to start selling its stock to investors on Wall Street as it focuses on safety.