Josh Weiner
TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump used his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to reject calls for international oversight of artificial intelligence, describing efforts to regulate the technology on a global scale as a “globalist scheme” aimed at controlling it.
“I’m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” Trump told the assembly, framing AI development as a race the United States cannot afford to slow down.
He drew a direct comparison to warnings about climate change, telling delegates that AI safety advocates “are now saying that AI is going to kill us all.” Trump dismissed the idea of an existential threat from the technology as a “hoax,” suggesting that having a “high IQ” president in place was safeguard enough against any risks.
Trump singled out Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei by name, days after Amodei published an essay calling for slower AI development and independent evaluation of AI labs. The president has since suggested on Truth Social that companies pushing for tighter oversight could face penalties.
The remarks land a day before Amodei and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman are scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on AI and international security. Altman is expected to address his company’s safety work and the importance of international cooperation on the technology.
The administration has already shown a willingness to use regulatory tools against AI firms pushing for caution: the Pentagon recently designated Anthropic a rare supply-chain risk and stalled the release of its Mythos model, a move widely read as a signal to the industry as the White House pushes an unregulated, growth-first approach to AI both at home and at the UN.
