As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in the US have joined together calling for the regulation of powerful artificial intelligence models, one of the few vocal naysayers has been Donald Trump. He’s called the perceived dangers of the technology a “hoax” and a “scam”, arguing that the government already has “tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies”. It’s a starkly different stance from those of his former adviser Steve Bannon, the Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz and even the heads of the world’s leading AI companies.
But it’s directly in line with the opinion of David Sacks – a prominent billionaire venture capitalist and Trump’s onetime AI and crypto czar, who has pushed back publicly and forcefully against recent claims of an impending AI apocalypse. Sacks, who believes regulation will erase the US lead in the global AI race, is seen as Trump’s AI whisperer – the adviser with the greatest influence in the White House on the topic. Time and again, he’s counseled the president to give a soft touch to AI regulation, helping push executive orders and other measures aimed at loosening restrictions on the technology.
He also maintains direct financial stakes in multiple AI companies. On Friday, more than 100 AI researchers, professors and technologists signed a public letter urging third-party evaluations of AI models and outlining how that should be done. The signatories included some of the most notable experts in the field, such as Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI”, and Stuart Russell, a renowned AI computer scientist.
Sacks, in characteristic form, dismissed the letter on social media, calling third-party evaluations “pseudoscience” and “censorship and control”. It was one of the first of several actions by the president that put his alignment with Sacks on full display. The proclamation assigned a federal taskforce to have the “sole responsibility” of challenging states that attempt to pass laws restricting the technology.
The order spelled out an influential role for Sacks to direct the taskforce’s litigation against states. Then, just four months later, in March, the White House unveiled an AI policy for Congress that encouraged lawmakers to pre-empt state rules. Again, Sacks was seen as working behind the scenes to make this happen.
This pattern has continued throughout the year. In July, Trump and Sacks hosted a fanfare-filled AI summit in Washington. And just this week, Trump called Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, to discuss AI regulation.
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