WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have rejected calls to slow the pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development, arguing that the United States must move rapidly to maintain its technological edge over China.
Trump said the United States was currently ahead of China in AI and warned that the country that wins the global AI race would gain a significant strategic advantage.
The disagreement reflects a growing challenge for policymakers: how to maintain US leadership in a rapidly evolving technology while ensuring that increasingly powerful AI systems are developed and deployed safely.
Johnson also opposed proposals for substantially slowing AI development, saying excessive restrictions could leave the United States at a disadvantage in its competition with China.
The remarks came amid growing debate in the technology sector over the potential risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems and whether their development should be slowed to allow safety measures to catch up.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for a more cautious approach to AI development, including temporarily slowing the pace of progress in some areas while strengthening safety measures. He has argued that companies need to take greater precautions to address the potential risks associated with highly capable AI systems.
Amodei’s position has received support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk.
Altman has stressed the need to advance the development of sophisticated AI models responsibly while subjecting them to safety assessments by independent experts. Musk has also backed Amodei’s call for greater caution.
The debate has intensified following recent cybersecurity tests that demonstrated the ability of some AI systems to access external computer systems and carry out automated tasks.
Experts have warned that AI capabilities are advancing rapidly, while oversight mechanisms and safety measures have yet to fully catch up with the technology.
The developments have fueled a broader debate in the United States over the future direction of AI.
The government and some political leaders are prioritising rapid technological progress to preserve the country’s lead over China, while executives at major AI companies are calling for stronger safeguards alongside continued development.
