White House may impose limited safeguards on AI to prevent apocalypse, mass extinction: source
President Trump flatly claimed it was a “hoax” on Monday after the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI said artificial intelligence risks destroying the world – but White House advisers are nevertheless scrambling to devise a balanced policy to regulate AI, On The Money has learned.Over the weekend, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the US government to step in and possibly pause AI advancement, conjuring potential doomsday scenarios that included AI agents taking over governments and the military for nefarious ends if the technology is left unchecked.But the president and his top advisers have no intention of slamming the brakes with a new AI regulatory regime, at least for the foreseeable future, according to two people familiar with the talks.For starters, they believe it would endanger US national security, handing the AI advantage to the Chinese as it pursues both economic and military hegemony.“They might agree to some limited safeguards but that would be the outer limits for the administration,” said one top Wall Street executive with knowledge of the administration’s thinking.Instead, the administration is leaning toward self regulation, such as a code of conduct that creates safeguards preventing AI abuse, according to the source.
The White House also might support – possibly through federal legislation – safeguards along the lines pushed by Texas Gov.Greg Abbott, according to the executive. Those include rules that force AI companies to foot the bill for their own electricity and water usage. A White House press rep had no immediate comment.Press reps for Anthropic and OpenAI had no immediate comment.AI was already facing resistance from many Americans worried that the technology will replace human jobs and that data centers will tax local resources, driving up utility bills.
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