Trump dismisses AI safety fears ahead of Xi Jinping's Washington visit

September 22, 2026 at 07:35 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

President Donald Trump dismissed AI catastrophe warnings as a hoax on September 14, two days after leading AI lab CEOs called for slowing frontier model development. His remarks came as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for the first state visit by a Chinese leader in more than a decade. The administration sees AI dominance as a zero-sum race with China, even as 63 percent of Americans in a Politico poll say AI could wipe out humanity.

Key Facts

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay on September 12 calling for leading labs to deliberately slow the pace of AI capability gains.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company would match Anthropic's commitment to host independent evaluators, and Elon Musk replied "Dario is right."
A Politico poll found 63 percent of respondents saw a real chance that AI could wipe out humanity.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned there is "no day after tomorrow if China wins" on AI.
Trump's 2024 voters preferred staying in the AI race (50 percent) to prioritizing safety issues (38 percent).

The Pacing Debate

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" on September 12, arguing that leading labs should deliberately slow how fast their models gain new capabilities. Within hours, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company would match Anthropic's commitment to host independent evaluators, and Elon Musk replied "Dario is right." Two days later, President Donald Trump called fears of an AI catastrophe a hoax and claimed that amid the backlash against AI and data centers, "the only one that is happy about it is China." In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump dismissed worries from critics that "AI is going to kill us," comparing them to complaints from environmentalists about climate change, which he also alleged was a false narrative.

Public Pressure and Polling

A new Politico poll found 63 percent of respondents saw a real chance that AI could wipe out humanity. A CBS News/YouGov survey found that most Americans want AI development slowed, though not stopped. Politico's polling showed that Americans are split, 43 percent to 37 percent, on whether falling behind other countries is acceptable in exchange for safer AI. Trump's 2024 voters preferred staying in the AI race (50 percent) to prioritizing safety issues (38 percent).

China and the Summit

Xi Jinping arrived in Washington this week for the first state visit by a Chinese leader in more than a decade. Trump said he wants to stay ahead of China because "whoever wins AI wins." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that there is "no day after tomorrow if China wins" on AI – "nothing [else] would matter." Amodei's plan recommended an "attempt to coordinate with authoritarian governments, to the extent this is possible, while taking seriously the challenges of verifying compliance."