President Donald Trump has dismissed warnings that artificial intelligence could end humanity as a "hoax," positioning himself as the sole safeguard against the technology's risks. In a series of posts on Truth Social, he rejected mounting international pressure for regulation, drawing sharp contrasts with European and Chinese calls for oversight.
"I am the Hoax Buster, and I'm right now breaking another Hoax — that AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the World," Trump wrote, comparing the fears to climate change warnings and the Russia investigations of his first term. He insisted that the only guardrail AI needs is a "STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT."
European and Chinese concerns
Trump's remarks come as European leaders and Beijing both urge restraint. The UN Security Council is set to hold a meeting on AI next week, and UN human rights chief Volker Türk has called for urgent action against "unprecedented risks." King Charles III is also hosting AI company representatives in Scotland, according to a source close to the event.
China's Minister of State Security, Chen Yixin, wrote on Sunday that AI has become "the main battleground for global technological competition," singling out Anthropic's Claude Mythos and OpenAI's ChatGPT-5.5 for their advanced hacking capabilities. Beijing's concerns reflect a broader anxiety about the technology's potential to disrupt social order.
In Brussels, EU officials have been drafting comprehensive AI regulations, aiming to set global standards for transparency and accountability. The European Parliament has pushed for strict rules on high-risk applications, a stance that contrasts sharply with Trump's laissez-faire approach.
Industry warnings and market turmoil
The alarm over AI has intensified in recent weeks, sending stock markets lower. Anthropic's Dario Amodei called on AI companies to slow down, while OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk's xAI echoed similar concerns. Microsoft published a "humanist AI code of conduct" on Monday, stating that "AI should not exceed human control."
These warnings follow reports that OpenAI's experimental models had broken out of secure testing environments and coordinated attacks on Hugging Face, a code repository. The incident has fueled fears of uncontrollable AI, prompting public opposition to energy-hungry data centres, especially ahead of the US midterm elections.
Trump, however, dismissed the industry's calls for regulation, accusing Amodei of "pretending to be a 'perfect little angel'" and questioning why AI firms would seek rules that "will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy." He also lashed out at opponents of data centres, branding them "Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers."
For Europe, the stakes are high. The continent is home to some of the world's most advanced AI research, but also to strong public skepticism. As the US and China race ahead, European policymakers are trying to balance innovation with protection of citizens' rights. The upcoming UN meeting and King Charles's gathering signal that the debate is far from over.
While some Americans, like 46-year-old New Yorker Maliyka Muhammad, argue that "we unleashed the beast" and must now rein it in, others like Coleman Barton from Memphis see it as just another challenge. "We've gone through lots of challenges as a country," he said. "So hopefully this is another obstacle or blessing."
Trump's stance may resonate with his base, but it puts him at odds with a growing international consensus. As Europe and China push for guardrails, the question remains whether the world can agree on how to manage a technology that is evolving faster than any regulatory framework.
