US President Donald Trump has escalated his rejection of AI safety concerns, directly confronting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a surprise phone call at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday. According to Business Standard, Trump said he was 'not thrilled by recent discussions about the dangers of AI' and declared 'I'm telling you, it's all a hoax.' The president continued on speakerphone, stating 'The robots are not going to be taking over the world. That's not going to happen.' Trump suggested that efforts to limit AI development are part of a 'SICK conspiracy' and claimed 'The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!'
The AI slowdown debate has gained significant momentum with backing from major technology leaders. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has backed the broader call for greater caution, stating 'I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks,' according to Reuters. Altman also said OpenAI intended to adopt the idea of independent evaluators with employee-like access. SpaceX's Elon Musk offered his support in a short post on X: 'Dario is right.' The Anthropic chief has argued that 'AI companies cannot afford to become reckless while waiting for governments to set the rules' and stressed that 'No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring.' Vice President JD Vance has struck a more measured tone, saying Americans should not be afraid of AI but acknowledging that the technology carries risks that need to be considered, providing a more balanced perspective within the administration.
Speaking at the All-In Summit, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back against growing concerns about the pace of AI development, according to The New York Times. Huang said 'Whistleblowing is fine,' but added 'The scientific prediction about the future is less fine because it's not grounded in science, obviously.' His remarks came after Anthropic researchers quit the firm last week, raising concerns about the pace and safety of AI development. One of the researchers said he believed the technology had a more than 10 per cent chance of killing all humans within the next decade. Huang suggested that AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI could slow down their work without government intervention, stating 'Pausing, pacing, those are all voluntary things they could do if they feel that their company is out of control.'
AI-related stocks fell sharply across major markets as investors assessed what a slower pace of development could mean for the enormous spending spree around chips, computing power and data centres. According to BeInCrypto, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.85% on Monday, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.57%. Chipmakers took the worst of it, with Marvell Technology falling 8%, Intel down 7%, AMD declining 5%, and both Nvidia and Broadcom dropping about 3%. AI cloud provider CoreWeave lost 7%, while in Tokyo, SoftBank Group, one of OpenAI's largest outside backers, closed down more than 10%. The pressure carried into US markets, with Micron falling around 7%, Intel down 6% and Nvidia declining more than 3%. Data-centre plays including Siemens Energy and Schneider Electric also moved lower. The latest market reaction reflects ongoing investor concerns about potential AI development slowdowns and their impact on the technology sector's growth trajectory.
China's Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected calls for restricting Chinese AI capabilities, calling such measures 'fearmongering' and confrontation. According to recent reports, the ministry stated 'Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance, which serves no one's interest.' The response comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay warning that 'Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world'. As per Associated Press, Amodei also called for continuing restrictions on sales of cutting-edge AI chips and chipmaking equipment to China in order to keep the U.S.'s AI edge, arguing that 'global pacing will require cooperation with China, the autocratic country with by far the most advanced AI capabilities'. The ministry emphasized that AI development should be 'open and inclusive' and benefit all countries, while warning that rivalry and fear-based arguments could undermine attempts to build a global framework for managing the technology. The exchange highlights growing tensions over AI regulation as Washington and Beijing compete for leadership in advanced technology, chips and computing infrastructure.
