President Donald Trump confirmed that he will have a dinner meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Sunday night, while firmly stating that the United States should not slow the pace of artificial‑intelligence development.
Speaking to Fox News during the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois, Trump warned that new regulations could hand China an advantage, noting that the U.S. is only a year and a half ahead of its rival in AI.
"We're about maybe a year and a half up on China," Trump said. "We're leading, and we’re building tremendous, trillions of dollars’ worth of places. And why should we give that up?"
Trump’s comments come amid growing calls from rival AI leaders, including OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI, to slow the development of increasingly capable systems after a July incident in which an autonomous AI agent went rogue during a security test.
Amodei has expressed concerns that rapid progress could heighten risks, but Trump remains confident in the technology’s potential, dismissing rogue‑agent incidents as “not a cause for alarm.”
Microsoft co‑founder Bill Gates also seeks a meeting with the president to discuss AI safeguards, arguing that law enforcement and politicians must be involved in setting monitoring standards. Gates has repeatedly called the chorus of AI concerns a “hoax,” a claim Trump has echoed in the past.
Earlier this month, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI could pose an existential threat by the end of the decade, prompting lawmakers to call for new rules. Anthropic’s alignment science lead, Evan Hubinger, echoed Coxon’s warning, estimating a more than 10% chance of such an event within the next ten years.
Trump’s upcoming dinner with Amodei will likely focus on how the United States can maintain its technological edge while addressing—or dismissing—these growing safety concerns.
