Vice President JD Vance pushed back against growing calls for AI regulation and a slowdown in development. He told reporters that while there are risks associated with any technology, “I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything.”
Vance added that the Trump administration is concerned about AI but wants to ensure that the technology is regulated intelligently.
“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So I think we just have to be careful about this.”
President Donald Trump has previously expressed similar views on the issue. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
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“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!” Trump added.
The comments come shortly after leaders in the artificial intelligence industry began issuing warnings about the risks of AI development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote a lengthy essay arguing that the industry must slow the pace of AI development to give companies and governments enough time to identify and reduce potential dangers.
His competitor, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has also acknowledged that the rapid development of AI carries serious risks. In a statement on X, Altman wrote, “First, we could lose control of the future to AI. This is unacceptable; we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people. To ensure that, we need ways to ensure that alignment and safety techniques stay ahead of progress in model capabilities.”
Altman also warned about the risk of AI becoming concentrated in the hands of a single company or individual.
“If an extraordinarily powerful AI is used by one person or company to impress their worldview onto everyone else, the results could be extremely dystopian. Avoiding these two threats requires walking a narrow middle path,” he said.
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The debate over AI risks gained further attention after Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic, explained on social media why he resigned from the company. In one post, he said AI companies are gambling with the lives of ordinary people and warned that AI “could kill us by the end of the decade.”
The reaction from lawmakers has been mixed. While some members of Congress support moving quickly on AI legislation, others argue that excessive regulation could restrict innovation and economic growth.
This is not the first time Vance has commented on AI. Last year, the vice president compared the technology to the sword of Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, during a visit to Les Invalides in Paris. He said both were “weapons that are dangerous in the wrong hands but are incredible tools for liberty and prosperity in the right hands.”