Exclusive: Thune believes Trump is willing to listen on AI guardrails despite public defiance

Senate Majority Leader John Thune maintains that President Trump is open to discussing AI guardrails, despite Trump's outspoken opposition to regulating the technology. In a recent interview with Axios, Thune revealed that he spoke privately with Trump about the AI issue a few weeks ago, believing that some of Trump's strong criticism stems from public paranoia and noise around the subject.

Thune reads Trump's position as preferring companies to develop secure systems themselves, rather than Congress or the administration, relying more on expert guidance.

Thune acknowledges the real threats posed by AI, contrasting it with Trump's characterization of the concerns as a "hoax." The senator's approach balances Trump's skepticism with the growing alarm from tech leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who reached out to Thune to discuss AI safety before making his public statements.

Thune has reintroduced his AI bill, previously co-sponsored with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, which puts the responsibility on tech companies to mitigate risks and requires them to report on serious risks with frontier models. However, Democrats have raised concerns about pre-deployment testing being voluntary and the proposed Department of Commerce rulemaking authority, which Thune fears could grant the executive branch too much power.