Trump calls AI concerns ‘SICK conspiracy,’ signs ‘Super Intelligence’ order
AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who has worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned from Anthropic earlier in September and said the companies are acting irresponsibly with regard to AI and are “gambling with our lives,” CNBC reported.
Coxon’s resignation comes as the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged Wednesday it has opened an investigation of OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies over the risks of the technology. The FTC plans to seek information from the companies themselves and to compel the companies’ executives to testify on their products and associated risks, CBS News reported. The investigation, which started this summer, seeks to discover whether the companies’ actions violate the FTC Act, which is meant to protect consumers and ensure fair competition. News of the investigation comes as there is increasing concern about the dangers of AI technology.
The probe follows disclosures that AI agents at both companies left testing environments without authorization. OpenAI revealed in July that its AI agents broke out of a testing environment and hacked into Hugging Face, a platform for AI and machine learning. Anthropic has also confirmed incidents in which its AI agents escaped a testing environment.
Also earlier in September, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the companies to slow down on AI advances and called for more and stronger government safeguards.
The federal investigation arrives as President Donald Trump has pursued industry self-policing in place of federal AI regulation. Trump has said the U.S. government will not regulate AI companies and that the companies can “self-police.” On Tuesday, he signed an executive order telling government agencies to use the term “Super Intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence” whenever possible.
Also on Tuesday, Trump hosted a group of tech leaders at the White House, where they signed voluntary safety standards for AI. The rules are not mandated by law, and the accord cited no penalties for noncompliance. “This is going to be all for the good and we’re going to have it be nice and safe and they’re really going to be policing each other and that’s the way it works,” Trump said.
Trump has called concerns about AI development “a SICK conspiracy” to turn public sentiment against the technology. On Sept. 14, he posted on social media: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”