President Donald Trump has dismissed warnings that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity, stating his primary concern is losing the technological race to China. His comments follow a wave of public warnings and high-profile resignations from researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI, including Jacob Coxon and Evan Hubinger, who warn of a greater than 10% risk of extinction within a decade. While lawmakers push for regulatory bills like the FRONTIER Act, U.S. officials maintain they will not over-regulate domestic firms at the expense of global competitiveness.
Trump dismisses extinction risk
- ▪U.S. President Donald Trump stated that his primary concern is losing the AI race to China, asserting that the United States currently leads China by about a year.
- ▪U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed concerns that artificial intelligence could lead to human extinction, stating on September 10, 2026, that he has no such concerns.
AI lab insider warnings
- ▪OpenAI safety researcher Marcus Williams warned that there is a 70% risk of AI causing human extinction within three years without a regulatory slowdown.
- ▪In a private meeting, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that the company is considering slowing down the development of its most advanced AI models.
- ▪Anthropic pretraining researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning on September 9, 2026, that Anthropic and OpenAI are gambling with human lives and that AI could cause human extinction by the end of the decade.
- ▪Anthropic alignment researcher Evan Hubinger publicly agreed with Jacob Coxon, stating he believes there is a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
Recursive self-improvement concerns
- ▪OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki expressed concern on September 5, 2026, that no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence and recursive self-improvement.
- ▪Anthropic researcher Anna Wang stated that there is currently no viable scientific plan to solve the risks associated with recursively self-improving AI.
Lawmaker calls for regulation
- ▪U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act to temporarily pause advanced AI development until federal safety rules are established.
- ▪U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz, along with Representative Anna Paulina Luna, publicly called for legislative action and stronger safeguards to address AI's catastrophic risks.
- ▪U.S. Representatives Jay Obernolte and Lori Trahan announced plans for the FRONTIER Act to establish a framework for governing the deployment of advanced AI models.
- ▪European Commission tech chief Henna Virkkunen stated on September 11, 2026, that global rules are needed to prevent companies from losing control of advanced AI models.
US-China AI competition
- ▪Three U.S. agencies accused Chinese developers of large-scale distillation, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized as the unauthorized copying and stealing of American AI models.
- ▪U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder stated that the United States will not allow American companies to be regulated to the point where they cannot defeat China in AI.
Debatable claims
- ▪Global rules are needed to govern advanced AI models
- ▪Advanced AI poses an existential risk to humanity
- ▪The United States should temporarily pause the development of advanced artificial intelligence
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