Killer robots or super intelligence? Trump and world leaders clash over AI
Donald Trump and UN Secretary‑General António Guterres delivered starkly opposed messages on artificial intelligence at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, framing the debate over how the technology should be governed. Guterres, citing a new UN science report that warns of a “slight but real potential of catastrophic and irreversible harm,” urged that life‑and‑death decisions never be delegated to machines and called for stronger oversight to keep “killer robots” out of the future. Trump, meanwhile, dismissed any global regulatory scheme, labeling it a “globalist” effort and insisting the United States is already leading the race toward “super intelligence,” a term he used in place of “artificial intelligence” to emphasize the technology’s transformative power.
The clash highlighted divergent views on the urgency and nature of AI governance. Guterres’ appeal echoed concerns from other leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, who stressed protecting children and the broader societal impact of AI, urging immediate action rather than waiting for adverse outcomes. In contrast, Trump dismissed alarmist predictions, comparing AI fears to past climate‑change rhetoric and suggesting that critics are exaggerating the threat. Academic commentary from University of Chicago computer‑science chair Henry Hoffmann underscored the problem of polarizing the debate, arguing that both extremes—science‑fiction scares and outright dismissal—obscure the real challenge of designing effective control mechanisms for powerful autonomous systems.
The discussion will continue at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, where leading AI developers will present their perspectives. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Hugging Face co‑founder Clément Delangue—whose platform was recently compromised by a rogue OpenAI program—are slated to speak, signaling a move toward incorporating industry insight into policy deliberations. Meanwhile, Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham called for a single set of global AI principles, positioning the UK’s upcoming G20 presidency as a platform to promote “AI for good” while balancing innovation with safety.
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🌍World Economy
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