# AI Experts Dispute Trump's Claims on AI Safety and U.S.-China Race
*Scholars say President’s focus on presidential power ignores regulatory realities and the 'race' narrative is a fiction used to slow oversight.*

- Medio: Orlando Ledger News (https://orlandoledgernews.com)
- URL: https://orlandoledgernews.com/noticia/ai-experts-dispute-trumps-claims-on-ai-safety-and-us-china-race
- Sección: Politics
- Autor: Orlando Ledger News Staff
- Publicado: 2026-09-16T07:11:08.594Z
> Experts say President Trump misunderstands AI risks. Scholars argue the U.S.-China narrative slows regulation while legal powers already exist to investigate misuse without new presidential guardrails.

## Las claves

- Trump claims only he can regulate AI, but experts cite existing federal laws
- Scholars reject the 'AI race' against China as a useful fiction for industry growth
- Critics argue focusing on superintelligence distracts from corporate accountability

Computer science and legal scholars have publicly challenged President Donald Trump’s recent assertions regarding artificial intelligence, arguing that his understanding of the technology's risks and regulatory landscape is fundamentally flawed. The pushback follows a Truth Social post by the president on Monday morning, where he claimed that AI requires no technical "guardrails" other than strong leadership from himself.

Trump stated in the post that the U.S. possesses sufficient criminal and regulatory power to stop companies like Anthropic from doing harm. He criticized Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for advocating slower development, a stance supported by OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Trump argued that whoever wins AI "wins," framing the issue as a zero-sum competition against China.

### Experts Reject the 'Race' Narrative

Academics dispute this competitive framing entirely. Emily M. Bender, a computational linguistics professor at the University of Washington, described the idea of an AI race as a "useful fiction" designed to drive industry growth rather than reflect reality. She argued that there is no clear destination or path for artificial general intelligence, making the concept of winning such a contest meaningless, more context in [Trump Downplays AI Risks Amid Rivalry With China, Dismissing Expert Warnings](/noticia/trump-downplays-ai-risks-amid-rivalry-with-china-dismissing-expert-warnings).

Bender noted that this narrative has been used to slow down regulations on data center expansion and privacy rights. "None of that is true," she said regarding the notion that superintelligence poses an imminent threat requiring presidential intervention. She emphasized that discussions predicated on building powerful, undefined systems only feed each other without addressing actual safety concerns, a story we covered in [Trump Downplays AI Risks Amid Rivalry With China, Dismissing Expert Warnings](/noticia/trump-downplays-ai-risks-amid-rivalry-with-china-dismissing-expert-warnings).

### Existing Laws vs. Presidential Power

Suresh Venkatasubramanian, a computer science professor at Brown University and co-author of the AI Bill of Rights Blueprint, clarified that while the government does have regulatory power, the current administration’s interest in using it is lacking. He pointed to a 2023 joint statement from federal agencies affirming that existing laws apply fully to AI misuse, as noted by [CNN](https://cnn.com).

Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton University professor, added that controls are needed but must address organizational failures within tech companies rather than relying on software guardrails alone. Experts argue that shifting accountability to the president ignores the complex reality of how these systems operate and fail in practice.
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Fuente original: https://orlandoledgernews.com/noticia/ai-experts-dispute-trumps-claims-on-ai-safety-and-us-china-race