Trump Rejects AI Extinction Warnings, Focuses on China Competition

President Donald Trump has dismissed warnings that artificial intelligence could threaten human survival, instead framing AI development as a competitive race against China that the United States must win.

Speaking to reporters Thursday in Dallas following the GOP convention, Trump was asked directly whether he worried about AI leading to human extinction. "No, I don't have any," he responded, according to Forbes, which first reported the remarks. "I have concerns that if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position."

Trump estimated the U.S. currently leads China in AI capabilities by roughly one year, describing that margin as significant. He referenced an upcoming visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping but made no mention of potential AI discussions during that meeting.

Researchers Sound Alarm on Existential Risk

The president's comments stand in sharp contrast to increasingly urgent warnings from researchers at leading AI laboratories. Earlier this week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from the company and posted publicly that both Anthropic and OpenAI were "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."

Coxon wrote that developers of these systems "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Evan Hubinger, Anthropic's alignment science lead, stated he personally estimates the probability of AI killing all humans at greater than 10% over the next decade.

Other prominent researchers have echoed these concerns. Jasmine Wang, an alignment researcher at OpenAI, warned that pursuing recursive self-improvement—where AI systems accelerate their own advancement—represents one of the most dangerous paths the industry could take. OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said he has a "strong expectation" that AI's rapid progress will lead to recursive self-improvement, adding he was "concerned no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence."

Legislative Response Takes Shape

The warnings have prompted bipartisan legislative activity. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told Forbes he is working with colleagues on legislation addressing "catastrophic risks" from AI, while partly adopting Trump's competitive framing: "if there are gonna be killer robots, I'd rather they be American killer robots than Chinese killer robots."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X that he found it alarming "there is even a possibility that these technologies would elude human control."

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar have introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would halt advanced AI development until federal safety standards are established. Separately, Rep. Jay Obernolte and Rep. Lori Trahan announced plans for the FRONTIER Act, legislation intended to establish rules for deploying advanced AI models.

Why it matters

The divergence between Trump's geopolitical framing and researchers' existential warnings highlights a fundamental tension in AI policy: whether to prioritize international competition or safety guardrails. This gap could shape regulatory approaches as the technology advances, potentially determining whether development proceeds with or without meaningful oversight mechanisms.

These details were first reported by Forbes.