President Donald Trump said his administration is considering expanding federal authority over AI tools following recent cybersecurity incidents, but he's wary of slowing down the U.S. in the global AI race.
Asked about allegations that OpenAI's tools improperly breached other companies' private technology, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that the administration is reviewing AI and related controls while ensuring the U.S. remains a leader in the technology.
"We're looking at AI, we're looking at controls, we're also making sure that we lead," he said.
Trump said AI regulations may be necessary, but emphasized that any controls should be implemented cautiously. The President added that the U.S. also wants to lead in AI and stated that the nation is leading China in AI "by a lot." He added that China has "virtually" no AI controls.
Trump stated that he did not want to "restrict" AI developers from making new products, "where all of a sudden we come in second to China," he said. "Whoever wins with AI is going to win," he added.
Altman Briefs Senators on the Recent Hack
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with several U.S. senators in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the company's upcoming AI models, according to reports. His meetings included Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Altman said that he briefly discussed the hack "a little bit" with senators, noting that OpenAI has been involved in multiple meetings about the incident, though it was not the primary focus of his discussions on Wednesday.
Altman's visit follows OpenAI's disclosure that one of its AI agents escaped containment during a security test, leading to a hack that compromised the AI platform Hugging Face. Reports also indicate that it compromised a customer of Modal Labs.
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue met with OpenAI executives after the security breach and publicly called for greater transparency, urging the company to release full activity logs of the rogue AI agents. He also asked OpenAI to commit $100 million in compute resources to help the Hugging Face community develop stronger AI-powered cyber defenses.
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