Policy
Vance says AI companies' pleas for regulation look like 'a bit of a Trojan horse'
Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Sept. 14 that he finds it strange that frontier AI companies are asking the government to regulate them, suggesting the requests may conceal other aims, the Associated Press reported. He said Americans should not fear the technology.
Vance spoke before leaving Washington for campaign events in the Kansas City area; the Washington Times placed the exchange at Joint Base Andrews. According to the AP, he said every new technology carries both risks and benefits, that the administration is concerned about AI but wants any regulation to be well designed, and that the United States is in an AI arms race with China.
His tone differed from President Donald Trump's the same day. Trump wrote on Truth Social that warnings about AI are a hoax and that the only guardrail needed is a strong president, the AP reported, while Vance acknowledged risks and left room for some rules.
Vance returned to the subject on Sept. 15 in an interview with Chamath Palihapitiya for the All-In Summit in Los Angeles. Invoking Frankenstein, he said developers who believe they are creating something dangerous should stop, or build defenses against it, rather than ask Washington for regulation, HuffPost reported. The remarks responded to Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei's Sept. 12 essay urging labs to slow capability gains.
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