Trump calls AI safety warnings a 'hoax' as tech leaders raise alarm

The US president is brushing aside warnings about the risks of artificial intelligence. Donald Trump has called them a hoax and a scam. Some of the biggest names in tech say AI is moving too fast without enough safeguards in place. China's top spy chief warned the tech could threaten the ruling Communist Party and rejected calls for the US to block Beijing's AI sector. Trump says the US can't afford to slow down and risk losing its lead over China. Manuel Rapallo has more from Washington DC. Regarding that meeting that reportedly took place between President Trump and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, this is a meeting that took place last Thursday following the Republican midterm convention. According to reporting by MSNOW, it was Sam Altman who requested this meeting with President Trump, where the two men spoke broadly about artificial intelligence and the increasing capabilities of this technology. We don't know a lot about what was said in that meeting itself, but what's been interesting is what's happened since and what's been said since that meeting. Sam Altman has publicly argued that there may come a point where continued development of these highly advanced LLMs, language learning models, AI systems, will need to be slowed down. Altman said on Sunday that no amount of competitive pressure on the United States should justify recklessness or allow capabilities to move faster than our ability to develop the safeguards necessary to continue to monitor this technology. This in itself puts Altman somewhat at odds with the administration, which continues and increasingly views the matter of artificial intelligence not only as a technological issue, but as a geopolitically competitive issue, especially when it comes to China. The Trump administration, President Trump himself, was very vocal on social media on Monday afternoon calling the warnings against AI a hoax. The Trump administration has also increasingly been treating the matter of artificial intelligence as a national security issue, as a matter of global competitiveness with China, saying in fewer words that whoever gets to this technology first, whoever does it best, will have a significant and an enormous geopolitical competitive advantage over the other. This is coming at a time where this debate is growing, not only here in the United States, but around the world, and it leaves the White House with a very important question. At what point do the risks of moving too quickly with AI outweigh the risks of falling behind? Manuel Rapalo, Al Jazeera, Washington.