Trump says not to worry about robots marching into cities — a week after sharing an AI pic of him and robots marching

Trump says not to worry about robots marching into cities — a week after sharing an AI pic of him and robots marching The president dismissed concerns about AI and data centers as a ‘hoax‘ - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments President Donald Trump dismissed warnings Monday that the rise of AI could lead to robots marching on U.S. cities — just a week after sharing an AI-generated image depicting exactly that. The 80-year-old’s robot remarks came hours after he posted a series of comments on Truth Social, dismissing concerns about AI and data centers as a “hoax,” and comparing them to past warnings about climate change. He also accused those raising such concerns of being “revolutionaries” working against American interests. “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, and that Robots will be marching into our Cities, and getting rid of us all!” Trump wrote around 4:30 p.m. Monday. “This is even wilder than the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, or the Global Warming Scam. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added. The post appears to contradict an image Trump shared last week depicting him walking through a dystopian Washington, D.C., surrounded by armed humanoid robots and spider-like machines with glowing red eyes. The U.S. Capitol looms in the background and a caption below reads: “THEY WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.” Debate over the risks of rapidly advancing AI have intensified following warnings from researchers and some of the industry’s most prominent executives. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for AI companies to deliberately “slow the pace” of increasingly powerful models, warning that progress could soon outpace efforts to make the technology safe. Amodei said AI agents could potentially cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage within months if they were able to operate across the internet. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, xAI CEO Elon Musk and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis have also backed the need to pace AI development. Trump, however, rejected calls for new guardrails, saying the U.S. already has “tremendous” criminal and regulatory powers over AI companies and that the only guardrail the technology needs is “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” "The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel' — and we will continue to do so!" Trump wrote. "We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!" He also argued that slowing AI development could allow China to overtake the U.S. in the technology race. Trump’s posts also targeted concerns over the growing number of AI data centers, calling opposition to both the technology and its infrastructure part of a “SICK conspiracy” and arguing that AI and data centers could become the greatest economic development engine in history. The Independent has contacted the White House for comment. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments