US President Donald Trump on Tuesday firmly rejected calls for international supervision of artificial intelligence, calling them a globalist scheme to control the new technology.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Trump said the United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control artificial intelligence.
He also announced that the US government would henceforth use the term super intelligence rather than artificial intelligence in its official communications. He said the word artificial makes the technology sound fake and that super intelligence is much more accurate.
Trump dismissed warnings from AI safety advocates that advanced AI and robots could pose an existential threat to humanity, comparing such concerns to warnings about climate change. He said the very same people who said the world would end because of global warming are now saying AI is going to kill us all.
The president said the United States will only encourage super intelligence and will not stifle the growth of a technology that could be bigger than the Industrial Revolution. He said the US leads the world in super intelligence and will continue to do so safely and responsibly.
The rejection comes as leaders of more than 20 countries have urged binding safety measures for advanced AI, warning that the technology’s development could outpace the ability to control it. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the US and China to start a dialogue on AI’s future similar to US-Soviet engagement during the Cold War.
China and the US are currently discussing creating a communication channel for AI concerns ahead of a summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
