Trump downplays need to check AI development, says he doesn't want to cede edge to China

DUBLIN — On Sunday, President Donald Trump downplayed the necessity for his administration to regulate the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), expressing concern about losing America's competitive advantage over China in the global AI race. He argued that securing this edge would help mitigate potential risks associated with the rapidly developing technology.

While acknowledging the need for certain oversight, Trump did not outline specific regulations and attributed the warnings about AI progressing too rapidly and lacking sufficient regulation to "negative forces" he did not identify, though experts in the field have raised similar concerns. During a weekend trip to Ireland, Trump told reporters, "We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen."

When asked later the same day if he was attempting to downplay the risks posed by AI, Trump responded, "I'm not downplaying," asserting that AI "is going to be more good than bad, but by a lot."