Trump Calls AI Risk Concerns a ‘Hoax’ in Onstage Call With Nvidia CEO, Says Slowing Development Helps China

President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about artificial intelligence as a “hoax” during a public phone call with Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, arguing that efforts to slow development could work to China’s advantage.

Bloomberg reported on September 14 that Huang took Trump’s call onstage during a panel discussion at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.

Trump framed the growing push to slow AI development as either a political effort or a position that benefits China. “The backlash against AI is helping the people who don’t want AI to advance,” he said. “It could be political forces, or it could be China.”

Huang agreed, saying it was misguided to cast the debate as a choice between rapid technological innovation and AI safety.

Still, Huang said concerns raised by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon deserved serious attention, even though Coxon recently left the company over AI risk. He called it courageous to raise those concerns publicly and said companies should take whistleblowers seriously.

The AI industry has seen a widening debate over the pace of advanced model development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy post on September 12 arguing that AI development needs to slow, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk also supported that view.

The debate also hit technology stocks. Nvidia shares fell 3.4% on September 14 as the possibility of slower AI investment came into focus.

Trump also stressed the need to expand data center construction. He criticized some state governments for refusing to approve new facilities, saying, “Data centers are like oil for the next 20 to 25 years,” and that they would be “bigger than the internet.”