Donald Trump has maintained a position against the regulation of artificial intelligence models, describing the perceived dangers as a "hoax" and a "scam". He has argued that the government already possesses "tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies".
This stance aligns with the views of David Sacks, a prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump's onetime AI and crypto czar. Sacks has publicly pushed back against calls for AI regulation, believing it would diminish the US lead in the global AI race. He is seen as having significant influence on Trump regarding AI policy.
In December, Trump signed an executive order aimed at halting state laws that limited AI, assigning a federal taskforce to challenge such state efforts. Four months later, in March, the White House introduced an AI policy for Congress that encouraged lawmakers to pre-empt state rules. Sacks was reportedly involved in these actions.
More recently, on Friday, over 100 AI researchers, professors, and technologists signed a public letter advocating for third-party evaluations of AI models. Sacks dismissed this letter on social media, labelling third-party evaluations as "pseudoscience" and a form of "censorship and control".