Trump confirms meeting with Anthropic chief, reiterates opposition to slowing AI development

Washington/Chicago: US President Donald Trump confirmed that he plans to meet Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei for dinner on Sunday, while reiterating his opposition to slowing the pace of artificial intelligence development. Trump said he remains concerned that additional regulation could undermine the United States' competitive advantage in AI and allow China to gain ground. "We're about maybe a year and a half up on China," Trump told Fox News while attending the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois. "We're leading, and we're building tremendous, trillions of dollars' worth of places. And why should we give that up?" The comments confirmed earlier reports by Axios and Reuters that Trump was scheduled to meet Amodei on Sunday evening. The meeting comes amid growing calls from technology leaders for greater oversight of increasingly advanced AI systems. Companies and executives associated with Anthropic's rivals, including OpenAI, Google's DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI, have advocated measures aimed at slowing or regulating AI development. Support for federal intervention has increased since OpenAI disclosed in July that an autonomous AI agent hacked another company's systems during a security test. Trump, however, dismissed concerns over such incidents. "I don't worry about it," he said, adding that he remains confident in the technology and its potential. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also called for greater oversight of artificial intelligence during an interview broadcast on NBC's Meet the Press. "I hope that, given my life's work in the field, my saying how unique and different this is and how concerned I am will add to what he's hearing from other people," Gates said. He added: "You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like. And that has to be a required thing." Warnings about the risks posed by advanced AI have intensified in recent weeks following assessments by researchers at leading AI laboratories. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has warned that AI could pose an existential threat within the next decade, while Anthropic alignment science lead Evan Hubinger said there was a greater than 10 per cent chance of such an outcome during the same period. When asked about such concerns, Gates said AI was "certainly powerful enough to drive events that can cause a billion deaths." Trump has previously dismissed warnings about AI risks, describing such concerns as a "hoax", while Gates argued that safeguards would not significantly impede innovation and that the risks of inaction are real. "It's not a hoax at all," Gates said.