Trump Says He 'Doesn't Mind' AI Guardrails, as Long as They Don't Put the US in 'a Deep Second Position' to China
President Trump told CBS's 60 Minutes, in an interview aired November 8, that the risks of artificial intelligence can be managed and that he doesn't mind guardrails, signalling openness to working with Democrats on safeguards, Reuters reported. He said he did not want rules that put the United States in 'a deep second position' behind China. Reuters notes Trump has previously favoured letting tech companies police themselves; no specific proposal was described.
The sentence that matters is the condition, not the concession. President Trump said on CBS's 60 Minutes that he "doesn't mind guardrails" on artificial intelligence, Reuters reported, but only if they do not leave the United States behind China, a test almost any rule can be argued to pass or fail.
What he said#
Asked whether the United States should accept the risks of AI to stay ahead of China, Trump said the dangers were manageable and expressed openness to working with Democrats on safeguards, according to Reuters, in an interview CBS aired on Sunday, November 8. "I don't mind guardrails," he said, adding that he did not want regulations to put the United States in "a deep second position" behind China, which he said had no such restrictions.
Reuters noted that Trump has previously favoured letting technology companies police themselves rather than imposing sweeping government restrictions, and said it remains unclear at what level he would accept safeguards.
Why the timing matters#
The remarks come days after midterm elections in which Democrats won control of Congress, according to Reuters reporting the same week, and as federal AI enforcement is being organised inside the executive branch: the Justice Department last week formed a Super Intelligence Task Force to prosecute unlawful uses of frontier AI. A president open to "guardrails" and a Congress inclined to write them is a different starting point from the self-policing approach Reuters describes, but nothing in the interview names a bill, an agency or a rule.
Limits#
- We read Reuters' account of the interview, not the CBS transcript or broadcast.
- Trump described no specific safeguard, and the White House has not published a proposal in what we read.