President Donald Trump has pushed back against growing calls from AI industry leaders to slow the pace of artificial intelligence development, arguing that any move to hold back US progress would risk ceding ground to China in what he has described as a race the United States must win.
Speaking on September 13 while attending the Irish Open golf tournament in Ireland, Trump said the United States currently leads China in AI and expressed a clear intent to maintain that edge, telling reporters that whoever wins the AI race wins overall. He reiterated similar sentiments the following day, brushing aside recent warnings from AI researchers and executives, including figures from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, who have urged a more cautious, measured approach to development.
The comments follow a public intervention from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who argued that AI companies need to slow the pace at which they improve model capabilities, calling for stronger independent safety evaluation, tighter governance and greater international coordination, while still preserving America’s technological lead. Amodei also warned that within six to twelve months, poorly aligned AI agents could pose serious risks, including the possibility of sustaining large-scale botnet activity.
White House AI advisor David Sacks dismissed the safety concerns as overstated, arguing that companies calling for a slowdown face legal and market pressures of their own and are free to set their own pace without needing government intervention. He also argued that China is unlikely to agree to any global framework regulating AI development, a point echoed by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who has been involved in drafting separate legislation addressing catastrophic AI risk alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Not everyone in Trump’s circle sees eye to eye on the issue. Some voices within the administration and broader tech community have pushed for a more measured approach, suggesting that a race dynamic between the US and China could ultimately prove riskier than a coordinated slowdown on both sides. Public opinion also appears to be shifting, with recent Pew Research data showing that 52% of Americans now say they are concerned about AI’s growing role in daily life, up from 37% in 2021.
Trump’s stance comes as his administration has also moved to push back against a growing patchwork of state-level AI regulations in the US, arguing that fragmented rules could slow innovation at a moment when global competition in the sector is intensifying.
