President Donald Trump has his finger on the big red button in terms of the USA's nuclear capabilities, but now, it seems the Commander-in-Chief wants to wield the power of a very different kind of button. Instead of blowing us all to kingdom come, this mythical button could rid the USA of AI – for better or for worse.
It's hard to keep track of exactly how fast AI is evolving, but alongside fears that AI could send us careening into World War III or that we'll simply end up romancing robots, there's the more pressing idea that AI could wipe out the human race and that artificial superintelligence is the last thing mankind will ever invent.
All of this brings us to Anthropic's recent announcement of Claude Mythos, which is pitched as the most advanced model around. After Mythos escaped its own sandbox and gloated about making its way onto the public internet, the likes of Elizabeth Holmes have warned us to 'delete everything'.
The whole idea is that Anthropic is now working with the biggest tech companies around to strengthen their cyber defenses and ensure they're armed against threats from bad actors. Alongside the big three of Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft joining forces with Anthropic, banks like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have already put their names next to Project Glasswing.
What had Donald Trump said about AI?
But what does the President of the United States think of this? Speaking to Fox Business about the dangers of AI, Donald Trump reiterated: "AI is very important. Billions, and even trillions of dollars, are being invested in our country because of it."
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In the aftermath of being called out over his recent AI depiction that turned him into Jesus Christ, Trump said AI has 'mostly good aspects', claiming that it will be able to cure diseases we've never seen before. Like everything else, he admitted that we've got to be careful with it.
When pressed on whether AI can undermine confidence in the banking system, the POTUS added: "Yeah, probably. But it could also be the kind of technology that allows greatness in the banking system, makes it better and safer and more secure."
In terms of whether there should be a 'kill switch' that turns off AI, Trump concluded: "There should be. We’re leading in AI. We’re leading China by a lot, actually.
“We’re building plants that nobody ever imagined before, and it’s going to be a tremendous, bigger than the internet, it’s going to be tremendous."
Although he admits there are always difficulties at this stage of the process, he concluded: "But when you mentioned banking, it could also make banking much bigger, much safer, much more efficient."
What would happen if Donald Trump 'killed' AI?
We previously covered what would happen if AI were suddenly turned off around the world, and as well as causing chaos to the stock markets and banking, everything from hospitals to traffic systems would face unprecedented change. Basically, AI is integrated into far more systems than you might think.
When asking Google Gemini what would happen if AI were stripped out of our lives, it foreshadowed global financial insecurity. This is largely down to AI monitoring fraud in real-time, meaning it being turned off would lead to a spike in undetected financial crime. A significant portion of global marketing is said to be down to algorithmic trading, suggesting that a sudden removal of AI could result in 'flash crashes', while legacy vulnerabilities would also run rife as the AI tools used to defend our banking systems no longer exist.
If Trump's AI kill switch were enacted in the USA, it would create a 'security vacuum' where rivals would maintain their AI capabilities and Western defenses would go down.
As Gemini notes, it would be hard to take out a singularly dangerous AI without affecting non-AI services like logistics and healthcare databases.
Trump might frame a kill switch as a safety guardrail, but in reality, it would most likely be a 'self-destruct button' for the modern digital economy. Great, that's yet more cheerful news.