Trump announces US 'AI Force' and AI tsar

US President Donald Trump has announced plans to form an 'AI Force' and appoint an artificial intelligence tsar. He made the announcement in a social media post on Saturday, according to a BBC report.

Trump stated his administration 'will not in any way hinder or stifle the growth' of the AI industry. He pushed back against calls to slow AI development until better safeguards are established. The president offered no specific details or a timeline for this plan.

Industry Stance on AI Safety

Trump's comments come amid a series of warnings from AI industry figures. Anthropic head Dario Amodei recently called for a slowdown in AI development. He proposed industry-wide deceleration, regulation, and independent monitoring of AI model development.

Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI have both said they agree with Amodei's recommendations. Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, told reporters that a mandatory 'kill switch' checkable by a third party may be needed for the industry.

Contested Claims and Warnings

Trump repeated comments that criticism and concerns around AI's potential dangers are a 'hoax'. This contrasts with claims from current and former researchers. Some suggest the technology could endanger humanity, with one proposing a greater than 10% chance of it 'killing all humans'.

Major AI companies have disclosed security issues. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google have reported instances of security breaches or incidents where their chatbots were used for 'malicious activity'. These companies are behind the Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini systems, respectively.

The Geopolitical and Economic Context

'AI is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country's GDP,' Trump said on social media. He added that he wants the US to continue leading China in AI.

AI sits at the heart of the US-China rivalry. The world's two largest economies are seeking an edge in advanced technology. The topic is expected to be discussed when Trump meets President Xi Jinping next week.

Trump said his administration would use the existing criminal and civil justice system to target any bad actors using AI.

Regulatory Challenges

The warnings have prompted US lawmakers to propose legislation. However, Sam Altman suggested this week that Washington has struggled to keep pace with the new technology and how to regulate it. He argued people should have more faith in AI firms to keep it safe.

'The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it's the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this,' Altman told a conference in San Francisco.

In the UK, MPs and peers have identified human rights risks posed by AI. They argue existing laws are ill-equipped to address the technology's rapid growth. The Joint Committee on Human Rights has published a report calling for a new AI bill to address the scale and seriousness of such threats.