Trump downplays AI risks after dire expert warnings and calls to slow development down

What the report says

US President Donald Trump has dismissed recent warnings about artificial intelligence risks, saying critics are raising concerns about outcomes that “won’t happen.” According to BBC World News, he made the comments during a visit to Ireland after several prominent AI figures urged a slower pace of development.

The BBC reported that the warnings included remarks from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who said staff working on advanced AI systems were deeply worried about the future. Coxon, who has also worked at OpenAI, told the BBC he supported a slowdown, but said any pause would need to be coordinated with China. He spoke on the same day as Trump, while industry leaders continued debating how to balance safety with competition.

On Saturday, Elon Musk and OpenAI chief Sam Altman backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow development to reduce the chance of serious mistakes. Amodei said any slowdown would need limits so China did not gain an advantage. Trump did not directly engage with that proposal, instead emphasizing that the US is ahead of China in AI and should remain there. The BBC framed the issue as a broader policy dilemma, with AI seen both as a major economic opportunity and a source of safety concerns after several recent incidents involving model misuse and security failures.