Ossoff: ‘Compromised’ Trump won’t regulate AI

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) on Monday said President Trump likely will not heed calls from technology leaders to implement guardrails on the development of AI because of his family’s investments in the industry.

The Georgia Democrat pointed to venture capitalist firm 1789 Capital — where Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is a partner — and its investments in AI.

“They’ve invested heavily in AI labs. They’ve invested heavily in data centers,” Ossoff told MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell. “So, the first family has a financial stake in this industry, and as a result, the president of the United States is compromised.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

The president earlier Monday waived aside concerns raised by current and former employees of AI companies about the potential dangers of the emerging tech.

“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!” he wrote Monday on Truth Social .

The criticism follows Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s announcement of a plan to slow the pace of AI development to allow for proper safeguards to be developed and implemented.

Trump, who is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week in Washington, cited U.S. competition with China on AI development in a separate post as justification to move forward with new technologies.

“President Xi, of China, just announced that China will be doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of AI, or its future,” he wrote, calling the worries about the dangers of the technology “a HOAX.”

“AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History ­­— Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet,” the president continued. “It will not be stopped by brilliantly run Destructive Forces during the Term of President DONALD J. TRUMP!”

AI is expected to play a part in the discussions between the two leaders at the upcoming bilateral summit.

Xi is reportedly bringing a large delegation of Chinese business leaders with him to the U.S., although it is unclear which industries will be represented by this group, according to Reuters .

When Trump visited Beijing for a bilateral summit in May, he brought a group of American business and technology executives, including then-Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Ossoff, who is running for reelection for his Senate seat in Georgia, called on voters to make their discontent with the president’s stance on AI known at the ballot box.

“We already know that Donald Trump is a dangerously corrupt and incompetent man,” the senator said. “The question is what we’re going to do about it.”