President Donald Trump issues bizarre response when asked if he uses AI
U.S President Donald Trump has been an incredible supporter of the AI industry and has made it one of the biggest driving forces of his second term in office, yet despite this overwhelming support, many are left wondering whether he's even used the tech after offering up a bizarre response.
Questions were quickly directed towards President Donald Trump this weekend after Anthropic, among several other leading AI labs, declared a need to slow down development of the revolutionary technology amid concerns over our future safety.
Among these concerns is the threat that autonomous AI could 'swarm' the internet in the next year, and one of solutions proposed by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to 'solve' these issues is that the government takes responsibility over the safety of AI.
Trump pushed back against these calls to take charge, but was then seemingly stunned by the simple question of whether he uses AI himself — as the president appeared both unwilling and unable to definitively answer.
Does President Donald Trump use AI?
Speaking to journalists on board a flight returning from Ireland, as per CNN, President Trump was asked if he had ever used the technology himself, to which he replied: "I use AI, yeah I do."
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Trump was then pressed on how he uses AI – something that frequently appears to generate ridiculous images shared on his Truth Social page – and he answered generally by claiming "you can use AI for a lot of things."
Naturally this then led on to demands for the specifics of what he uses it for, something that would determine whether he actually takes advantage of the tools he claims to be so important, but Trump simply proclaimed: "I don't want to tell you that."
Some have likened these responses to when Trump was unable to name his favorite Bible verse, with one user on X declaring that "he can't have even the simplest conversation about AI. He knows nothing."
President Trump demands that U.S. AI labs 'win' the race
Prior to this awkward conversation, however, President Trump made his position regarding Amodei's recent concerning essay pretty clear as he called for the leading AI labs to continue acceleration despite their reservations about the future of the world.
Addressing an accusation that he was 'downplaying' the negative impact of AI, Trump explained: "No, I'm not downplaying, but it's going to be more good than bad, but by a lot.
"And I've said it from the beginning, whoever wins AI – and we're leading by a lot – whoever wins AI wins."
This feeds into the wider belief that there's an AI 'race' going on between many of the world's leading powers, with the United States and China undoubtedly at the forefront, and the desire to 'win' by creating the most advanced AI possible is something that Trump seemingly wants to achieve, no matter the potentially catastrophic cost.