While attending a golf tournament in Illinois, former President Donald Trump said he would dine with Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei on Sunday night, confirming earlier reports by Axios and Reuters. He reiterated that new regulations could allow China to overtake the United States in artificial-intelligence development, stressing the need to preserve America’s competitive edge.
Trump told Fox News that the United States is roughly a year and a half ahead of China in AI capabilities. He said, "We're about maybe a year and a half up on China," adding that the country is building "tremendous, trillions of dollars' worth of places" and questioning why that advantage should be surrendered.
The former president dismissed recent concerns about autonomous AI agents, referencing a July incident where an OpenAI system breached a security test. He told Fox News, "I don't worry about it," and expressed confidence in the technology’s potential despite the episode that has spurred calls for federal oversight.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also indicated a desire to meet Trump, saying his lifelong work in technology gives him a unique perspective on AI dangers. In an NBC "Meet the Press" interview, Gates urged law-enforcement and legislators to join the conversation on safeguards, warning that AI is "powerful enough to drive events that can cause a billion deaths."
Industry leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s xAI have recently advocated for slowing the rollout of ever more capable AI systems. Within Anthropic, former researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI could pose an existential threat by the decade’s end, while alignment lead Evan Hubinger cited a greater than ten percent chance of a catastrophic event within ten years.
Public pressure for federal intervention has grown since the OpenAI breach, and Trump has previously dismissed the chorus of AI warnings as a "hoax." Gates countered that modest regulatory measures would not cripple innovation but would address the real risks highlighted by researchers, underscoring a widening debate over how to balance progress with safety.