Trump dismisses AI safety concerns as a hoax, unveils AI Force plan

President Donald Trump responded to the growing debate over AI safety by framing it as part of a long line of hoaxes he says Democrats have generated to damage the country. On Saturday, he wrote on Truth Social that the term Artificial Intelligence is inaccurate and inelegant, then posted a poll letting followers vote on a replacement name: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence.

A couple of hours later, Trump followed up with a post grouping attempts to weaken or destroy AI alongside what he called other Democratic hoaxes, including Russia, Ukraine, and claims about global warming and impeachment. He said the backlash, in his telling, began with attacks on data centers, which he claims largely failed once communities recognized the economic benefits, before critics moved on to targeting AI directly. He offered no evidence that the backlash against AI and data centers isn’t organic — both parties have criticized data centers, and New York recently became the first state to halt permits for large projects.

The comments echoed remarks Trump made at a golf tournament the previous weekend, where he said he is open to guardrails but argued that negative forces are raising concerns they shouldn’t be raising. On Saturday, he said he will support and watch over the AI industry as it grows, while also announcing plans to form an AI Force, modeled on the Space Force he created in his first term, and to name an AI czar — “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” he wrote, without detailing what either role would do.

Venture capitalist David Sacks stepped down as Trump’s AI and crypto czar earlier this year to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The AI safety debate has intensified since a researcher said he was leaving Anthropic over fears that leading AI companies believe their technology could be catastrophic within the decade; Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has since proposed a plan to pace AI development, which OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceX’s Elon Musk appeared to endorse.

Why it matters

By framing AI safety concerns as a partisan hoax rather than engaging with specific technical risks researchers have raised, the administration signals that AI policy in the US will be shaped more by political messaging than by the substance of the safety debate.