Trump dismisses AI extinction risks as more than a dozen OpenAI, Anthropic insiders call for a slowdown

2026-09-11 | original

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Why This Matters

The US president is publicly rejecting existential AI risk and framing policy purely as a race to beat China, even as more than a dozen researchers inside OpenAI and Anthropic publicly urge a slowdown. That gap between Washington's competitive framing and frontier-lab insiders' safety concerns will shape how — or whether — AI gets regulated, and how much weight safety carries against speed at the labs themselves.

Key Takeaways

Trump says he has no concerns about AI causing human extinction, only about losing the race to China, which he claims the US leads by about a year.
More than a dozen insiders at OpenAI and Anthropic have gone public with warnings about the pace of frontier AI development.
The split signals little appetite in Washington for safety-driven slowdowns, leaving self-restraint largely to the labs.

Worth a Look

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" by Yudkowsky & Soares — If the insider warnings from OpenAI and Anthropic researchers have you curious about the actual arguments behind AI existential risk, this book lays out the case in plain language. It's the most direct way to judge the debate for yourself instead of relying on soundbites, and it pairs well with Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence for a fuller picture.

See If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" by Yudkowsky & Soares on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.

U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed warnings that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, after a wave of insiders at frontier labs Anthropic and OpenAI stepped up public warnings of risks from the technology.

When asked if he had concerns about AI leading to human extinction, Trump said, "No, I don't have any."

"I have concerns that if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position," the president told reporters Thursday. "We are leading China right now by a pretty good period, I would say a year, which is, you know, considered a lot."

The U.S. and China are locked in a battle for AI supremacy, with tensions ratcheting up as Chinese AI models have become more advanced and their adoption grows across the globe.

Trump's comments came after a number of researchers at frontier AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, sounded the alarm over the rapid pace of development of the tech.

Explore topics: openai anthropic donald trump ai extinction risk china ai race