TL;DR
Trump publicly rejected global AI regulation at the UN General Assembly, cementing a U.S. posture shaped almost entirely by venture capitalist David Sacks that prioritizes speed over safety and puts Washington at odds with most of the world.
What happened
- Trump dismissed AI safety concerns as a "hoax" and a "scam," arguing existing criminal and regulatory powers over companies are sufficient.
- David Sacks, Trump's former AI and crypto czar, is the architect of this stance: he called third-party AI evaluations "pseudoscience" and labeled Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's safety proposal an "election-season psyop."
- More than 100 AI researchers, including Geoffrey Hinton and Stuart Russell, signed a public letter urging third-party model evaluations, which Sacks publicly dismissed on social media.
- Amodei proposed slowing AI development for public safety, and in a rare show of unity, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk agreed, but Sacks and Trump rejected the call.
- Trump announced plans to create an "AI Force" headed by an AI czar, with Sacks widely seen as the likely power behind the role, and Sacks is slated to attend Trump's upcoming White House meeting with China's Xi Jinping alongside AI CEOs.
Why it matters
- Sacks holds direct financial stakes in multiple AI companies, raising conflict-of-interest concerns that critics say subordinate public safety to investor returns.
- The U.S. posture actively undermines multilateral AI governance: Trump signed an executive order in December halting state-level AI restrictions, and the White House pushed Congress in March to pre-empt state rules.
- A federal taskforce with "sole responsibility" to challenge state AI laws, directed by Sacks, means even domestic safety guardrails face White House opposition.
- The split between the U.S. and leading AI labs on their own safety is now public: Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind all called for restraint while the administration called that restraint a power grab.
- With Trump hosting Xi Jinping and AI CEOs together, AI governance is now entangled with U.S.-China geopolitics, framing any regulation as a concession in the global AI race.
What to watch next
- Whether Sacks formally returns as AI czar under the new "AI Force" structure, which would institutionalize his influence and his financial conflicts.
- How other UN member states respond: if Europe and allied nations move toward binding AI safety frameworks, the U.S. rejection creates a regulatory fracture with trade and diplomatic consequences.
- Whether Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google DeepMind publicly break with the White House or quietly accept the no-regulation posture to preserve access and government contracts.
Originally published on Present of AI, a daily source-linked AI news timeline. Read the full timeline or browse the open dataset.