US President Donald Trump said claims that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity are a “hoax.” In posts on Truth Social, he compared those concerns with warnings about global warming, which he also described as false.
In several messages, Trump argued that the alarms surrounding AI are overstated. He said the idea that AI will “take over the world,” consume and destroy it, or send robots into cities to get rid of people is untrue. He also described such claims as even more absurd than allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election or assertions about global warming.
Trump’s comments came after Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told the BBC that there should be a mechanism and rules to fully shut down AI software if it becomes too dangerous. Earlier, some executives and employees at leading AI companies had also warned that the technology could threaten humanity.
Against that backdrop, shares in some technology companies were sold off on September 14 as investors began to consider what a possible slowdown in AI development could mean for sector growth and market valuations.
