Trump calls AI safety concerns a hoax, likens them to climate change
UK First Secretary of State Louise Haigh will use a Tuesday address to the Trades Union Congress to call on the UK government to heed warnings from artificial intelligence developers about safety risks, according to excerpts released before the speech. Haigh is expected to say the government is “ready to work with international partners” to prioritise public safety and national security, while also acknowledging the technology’s potential benefits.
“AI has enormous potential to transform our public services, make our businesses stronger and deliver new scientific breakthroughs,” Haigh is expected to say, according to the excerpts.
The speech comes as executives and current and former staff at AI companies have publicly warned that the technology could endanger humanity. Evan Hubinger, a researcher at Anthropic, said he believed there was a greater than 10% chance AI “could kill all humans” within the next decade. Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee who left the company, told the BBC: “If we don’t slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for the pace of development on AI models such as Claude and ChatGPT to slow down and be closely monitored, with risks described as “serious.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk have backed Amodei’s call. Some in the AI industry have suggested the fears about AI destroying humanity are overstated or may even be designed to generate hype.
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said it was “a good thing that the companies developing the most advanced AI systems are now talking openly about the risks as well as the opportunities.” A UK government spokesperson said the government “takes the risks from advanced AI extremely seriously,” adding: “These risks cross borders, so we are working closely with the companies developing the most advanced systems, and with our allies and international partners.”
UK MPs are seeking new laws on AI after a parliamentary committee report found the technology was responsible for “numerous abuses of human rights.” Labour MP and committee chair Alex Sobel said: “Nowhere in the world, including the UK, has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose.”
Jack Clark, an Anthropic co-founder, told the BBC that “most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug” on dangerous software, but said lawmakers may need to enforce having one. The UK government has rejected a proposal brought to Parliament by Lords and MPs to create a legal mechanism for the UK to switch off an AI model in an emergency. The Cabinet Office said the UK “cannot simply turn AI off,” with a spokesperson telling BBC News that “blocking access to models in the UK would not prevent them being developed or misused elsewhere.”
US President Donald Trump has dismissed the idea of AI threatening humanity, writing on Truth Social that ‘AI destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX.’ In a later post, Trump said the AI Hoax was “being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats” and likened it to what he describes as the “Global Warming Scam” by the left. Trump, who frequently shares AI content on Truth Social, has lauded the benefits of AI and has been public about his desire for the US to win “the AI race.”