President Donald Trump met late Sunday night with the CEO of artificial intelligence company Anthropic before he hosts a big tech event in Washington on Tuesday, as he publicly pushes back on the need for AI regulations.
Trump’s meetings with top tech leaders come as bipartisan concern grows over what might happen if the government does not create guardrails.
Trump said Sunday night he would have a 10 p.m. dinner with Dario Amodei, the head of AI giant Anthropic. The president repeated that he does not think the government should regulate AI, despite a push from some industry leaders.
“We’re leading and we’re building tremendous, you know, trillions of dollars’ worth of places, and why should we give that up?” Trump said Sunday. “If something is bad, they have to fix it, and if they don’t fix it, that’s why you have the Department of Justice.”
Trump is set to host an event in Washington on Tuesday to unveil a new government website that uses AI to streamline access to federal services. Tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, are expected to attend.
The president is also expected to host some of those leaders at the White House for meetings about possible regulations.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Washington needs to pass AI legislation.
“You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” Gates said. “And that has to be a required thing.”
But Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed that idea on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The answer is not to just try to all of a sudden regulate this in a way that will make us second or third place in the world,” Blanche said.