WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump defended his administration’s approach to artificial intelligence regulation, saying the United States has safeguards in place while arguing that China’s primary check on the technology is President Xi Jinping.In an interview with Fox News published Friday, Trump was asked what guardrails could ensure the United States maintains its lead over China in AI while addressing public concerns surrounding the rapid expansion of data centers.Trump pointed to his administration’s action against AI company Anthropic as an example.“They did something that was very bad. Three months ago. And we shut them down. We shut them down fast,” Trump said.The Trump administration earlier this year designated Anthropic a security risk and barred the company from working with the US government. A federal judge ruled late last month that the move was unlawful.“We have guardrails,” Trump said. “The biggest guardrails are having people that are just as smart because nobody understands it except you have to be extremely high IQ.”Turning to China, Trump said Beijing approaches AI regulation differently.“China doesn’t have guardrails, by the way … President Xi is the guardrail. I mean, you can do anything in China,” he said.Trump maintained that the United States is leading China in the global race to develop AI technology.“We are competing with China. As you know, we are winning. You know we are winning against China with respect to AI,” he said.Trump described AI as potentially more consequential than previous technological and economic transformations, calling it “bigger than the internet” and “probably” bigger than the Industrial Revolution.“It could be, and we’ll know in about a year, it could be the biggest thing of all. And it’s mostly for the good,” he said.
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