U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he is going to establish an “AI Force” and will also appoint a new AI czar, while dismissing concerns raised about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence technology taking over the world or killing humans as a “hoax” and vowing to support its growth.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said he will not “in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry,” before drawing a parallel between the proposed AI Force and the existing Space Force that was established during his first term as president.
Trump also said that the “existing Criminal and Civil Justice System” is more than capable of serving as a mechanism to identify any potential dangers and risks with AI. The president didn’t say when he would hire a new AI czar, and neither did he nominate anyone for the role or explain what duties that individual would have. He offered few details about what the AI Force would do, either.
In his post, Trump said that AI could eventually account for as much as 25% of the U.S.’s gross domestic product, and called it “the next Industrial Revolution or Internet, but it will be even larger and more impactful.”
The role of AI czar isn’t a new one. The venture capitalist David Sacks was appointed to the role shortly after Trump returned to the White House for his second term, only to vacate the post in March after he ran out of time he was permitted to serve as a special employee of the government, CBS News reported. But Sacks has still continued to advise Trump about AI through his new role as the chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Trump’s post came at a time when the White House is being put under pressure to come up with new regulations or design some kind of guardrails to ensure the safety of AI systems. The debate around AI safety picked up steam one week earlier after Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Dario Amodei called on the industry to coordinate a slowdown on the development of frontier AI models. He argued that developers need to leave a bit more space between major advances in model capability, in order to provide time to evaluate those new models properly and ensure they can be released safely.
Amodei’s proposal came after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that his company and its rivals OpenAI Group PBC were racing toward self-improving intelligence and “gambling with our lives.”
The call for a slowdown won the backing of leading AI personalities, including OpenAI Group PBC CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX Corp. CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind Chair Demis Hassabis, among many others. But Trump has dismissed any notion of slowing up, arguing that to do so would give Chinese AI developers an edge over the U.S. and allow that country to build up an unassailable lead. Several Chinese officials have also rejected calls for a slowdown.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump compared the warnings about AI with the alarmist talk about the dangers of global warming, which he once dismissed as a “con job.” He said the latest AI fears were just conspiracies created by “Radical Left Democrats,” while ignoring the fact that many Republicans have also raised concern about the technology.
Despite this, the White House is gearing up for a big week, with a senior-level gathering that’s focused on AI alongside the U.N. General Assembly slated for Wednesday. Later that evening, the White House will host a state dinner tied to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, which will see the likes of Altman, Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang and Google LLC CEO Sundar Pichai in attendance. AI safety is also one of the topics on the agenda for Trump’s talks with Xi, the White House has said.
