Trump on 60 Minutes: AI risk overblown, DOJ warned exec with jail

The interview puts Trump's public position on AI risk in unusually direct terms. Asked about executives' safety warnings, he said the risk is 'not nearly as real' as they describe and that it can be managed — a stance that sits awkwardly with the warnings some AI leaders have issued about their own models.

His account of DOJ pressure on an unnamed AI company leader is the most concrete example he offered. He said the person was reported for 'doing something bad with AI,' that the government told them to 'get ready to go to jail,' and that 'this person totally changed everything' afterward. He declined to identify the person or company beyond calling it 'one of the big ones.'

Trump also framed cooperation with Democrats as conditional. He said he would work on AI safety and doesn't mind 'guardrails,' but warned against putting the US in 'a deep second position,' claiming China has 'no guardrails' beyond what Xi says. In the same interview he repeatedly used the term AI despite having previously said 'artificial intelligence' is a term used by people he considers the enemy, and said Xi is 'all in to SI' — super intelligence — which he called 'a much better name.'