US President Donald Trump has said fears about the safety of artificial intelligence (AI) are a “hoax”, as he criticised calls to have more guardrails in place for the fast-moving technology.
It comes after Jack Clark, co-founder of AI giant Anthropic, told the BBC that a “kill switch” that can be checked by a third party may need to be mandatory for the industry.
Clark’s comments followed warnings about the risks the technology poses to humanity that have been raised in recent days by several executives and staff at leading AI firms.
Those concerns triggered a selloff in tech firms’ shares as investors weighed the impact of a potential slowdown in the multi-billion dollar development of AI.
In a series of social media posts, the US president compared warnings about AI to the “Global Warming Scam” which, he said, was “being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats”.
Trump also called himself “the Hoax Buster”, likening concerns about the safety of the technology to what he called “the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX”.
The only “guardrails” needed for AI was a “strong and smart” president, said Trump.
In another post he wrote: “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”
Chinese state media said experts had warned that “Washington’s growing anxiety over China’s rapid AI development appears to be increasingly distorting its policy priorities”.
“They know that China has become a strong competitor in AI, and worry that if the US slows down development or tightens regulation, China could catch up even faster,” Xin Qiang, a professor of American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.
Clark, who is one of Anthropic’s seven founders, said earlier on Monday that a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous was something society “might want to eventually pass rules around”.
He added that “most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug”, including Anthropic, but said lawmakers may need to enforce having one.
UK Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said on Tuesday that people should “never be complacent” about the impact AI might have but added: “We’ve got to be careful not to get hyperbolic about this either.”
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “Of course there are risks but, let’s be frank, there are some tremendous upsides, whether it’s public services, healthcare, the contribution to the economy.”