Trump Goes Full Hoax on AI Existential Risk

President Donald Trump publicly dismissed warnings that AI could destroy humanity as a "hoax," in remarks recounted by Zvi Mowshowitz. According to the post, Trump said AI taking over the world is "a HOAX, no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA" and other claims he has previously rejected, adding that "I am the Hoax Buster" and calling the AI-destruction warning "even wilder than the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, or the Global Warming Scam."

Trump also argued that industry leaders calling for regulation would not do so if it threatened their businesses, referenced Chinese President Xi's position on AI, and said Google plans a plant in Finland because US permitting is difficult. In a separate post, he said "Don't kill the Golden Goose" and described AI and data centers as potentially the greatest economic development engine in history.

At the All-In Summit, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took a roughly five-minute phone call from Trump, who said critics were "playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don't want to see it happen. Political people, and also China. We're not going to let that happen. It's a hoax." Mowshowitz writes that transcripts differ over who "they" refers to, but that the hosts' version attributes it to doomers.

Mowshowitz criticizes Huang, saying his claim that an ex-Anthropic researcher's tweets were "ignorant of the industry's safety work" amounts to lying, and notes Huang later praised whistleblower Jacob Coxon's "great courage" at the All-In Summit while still opposing new AI laws. Mowshowitz also disputes a claim by Erick Erickson that AI doomers want the US to recede, writing that those worried about AI have favored nuclear power and that the opposite is true.

Mowshowitz calls for not attacking Republicans or Trump personally, says nothing is fixed and Trump changes positions, and suggests some statements may be posturing before a US-China summit. He writes that Trump likely has only been briefed by some combination of Bessent, Lutnick and Jensen.