Trump Dismisses AI 'Kill Us All' Warnings, Says Beating China Matters More

Since Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned Tuesday, September 8, and posted a warning that went past 100 million views within 24 hours, the debate over AI safety has moved from Silicon Valley message boards straight into the Oval Office press pool. President Trump's answer, delivered Thursday night to reporters traveling with him out of Dallas, was blunt: he's not worried.

"No, I don't have any" concerns about AI leading to human extinction, Trump told reporters, according to CNBC. "I have concerns that if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position. We are leading China right now by a pretty good period, I would say a year, which is, you know, considered a lot."

In a separate interview with GB News, Trump went further, dismissing the scenario entirely. "It's going to be fine. We'll always have something to stop them, right? We'll have a little gear, boom," he said, adding, "I really don't like that robot," and comparing AI anxiety to past panics over television and radio replacing other industries.

What Coxon actually said

Coxon, who says he worked at both Anthropic and OpenAI over the past three years, posted on X that the two companies are "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." He wrote that people building the technology "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade" and warned that upcoming systems would be able to "hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources."

He wasn't alone. Evan Hubinger, a current Anthropic employee, backed him up publicly: "I personally think it is >10% within the next decade." Jasmine Wang, an OpenAI alignment researcher, called the industry's speed toward recursive self-improvement, where AI systems begin driving their own advancement, one of the most dangerous paths available. OpenAI's chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, said he has a "strong expectation" that current progress will carry through into recursive self-improvement, adding he's "concerned no one is prepared for the consequences."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly told employees this week the company is weighing a slower pace on its most advanced models and hoping rivals follow suit, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg and CNBC.

A White House that's genuinely split

A senior industry source told the LA Times that AI companies have largely given up trying to convince Trump personally and are instead working Congress directly, because the administration itself is divided. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Office of the National Cyber Director reportedly hold the most concern inside the West Wing about an unchecked "intelligence explosion." But the source described most of the administration as "accelerationist," adding pointedly: "It's not clear the president understands the technology. He may just be figuring out what all of this means."

Trump's stated priority, staying ahead of China by roughly a year in AI capability, is a legitimate national security concern, not an invented one. Beijing is racing on the same technology with none of the safety debate playing out publicly. If the U.S. unilaterally slows down and China doesn't, Trump's argument is that America loses the race that actually determines who sets the rules. That's a coherent position, whether or not you think it addresses the extinction question.

Congress isn't waiting on the White House

The reaction split along different lines than usual. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would pause advanced AI development until federal safety standards exist. Sanders called Trump's comments "appalling and extremely dangerous," posting: "No, Mr. President. We won't have a little gear to protect humanity from the threat of an uncontrolled AI. We must pause development NOW."

But this isn't a partisan split. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told Forbes he's working with Senate colleagues on legislation addressing "catastrophic risks" from AI, even while echoing Trump's framing: "if there are gonna be killer robots, I'd rather they be American killer robots than Chinese killer robots." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted that he finds it alarming there's "even a possibility that these technologies would elude human control." Rep. Jay Obernolte and Rep. Lori Trahan are pushing a separate bill, the FRONTIER Act, to set deployment rules for advanced models. Trahan wrote on X: "Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway. It's past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job."

The unresolved question is whether Congress moves before Trump does. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Washington on September 24 for a state dinner, with AI development expected to top the agenda, though neither Trump nor any source cited here has confirmed what, if anything, gets negotiated on AI guardrails at that meeting.