Trump Claims DOJ Threatened Arrest of Unnamed AI Exec, Dismisses Existential Risk
In a 60 Minutes interview, President Trump stated that the DOJ warned an AI leader to 'get ready to go to jail,' arguing that AI risks are manageable without new regulations.
US President Donald Trump claimed in a CBS '60 Minutes' interview that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had issued a severe warning to the head of a major AI company: 'Get ready to go to jail. Please give your wife a kiss good night.'
Trump refused to name the individual or the company but asserted that after this threat, 'this person totally changed everything.' He simultaneously dismissed concerns about existential AI risks, stating they were 'not nearly as real as they talk' and could be managed.
When asked if he would work with Democrats on AI safety guardrails, Trump said he 'absolutely would' but emphasized not wanting to put the US in a 'deep second position' behind China. He noted that China has no guardrails other than what President Xi dictates, implying his own approach is strong but distinct.
This rhetoric aligns with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's recent view that AI safety is an engineering problem requiring no new laws, while contrasting sharply with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to 'pace the frontier.' No independent evidence currently corroborates the specific details of the alleged DOJ intervention.