President Donald Trump's dismissal of artificial intelligence dangers as a "hoax" is running into widespread resistance from within his own party.
More than a dozen Republican lawmakers told MS NOW they take the risks posed by AI seriously — a rare and wide-ranging break from the president's position, and one senator – Kevin Cramer of North Dakota – described the president's stance on the topic “the least popular position in America.”
"It was an unusually broad break with Trump," MS NOW reported. "Even as Republicans struggle to come up with an answer on what exactly the GOP position on AI should be, most acknowledged that it shouldn’t be Trump’s position."
Trump wrote on Truth Social this week that AI concerns are overblown and that a "High IQ" president is all that's needed to manage the technology, which he posted days after a senior Anthropic researcher warned there is roughly a 10 percent chance AI could wipe out humanity within a decade.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) put distance between himself and the president. "It's not a hoax," he said. "It's a real thing. Anybody telling the president this is a hoax should look at some of the things that Anthropic and some of the other leaders have seen."
Even Republicans who've stayed close to Trump on most issues disagreed with him on the record. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said he didn't see the concerns as a hoax, while Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said lawmakers shouldn't be "cavalier" about the issue. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) raised what he called "The Terminator risk" — the possibility that AI systems could evolve into something akin to "an independent species that don't necessarily reflect human values" and "no longer work for us."
Several Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) argued Congress has a legitimate role in regulating the technology. Hawley has already introduced bipartisan legislation with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to create a federal evaluation program for advanced AI systems.
Not all Republicans are breaking ranks. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) defended Trump's comments, saying the president was only downplaying doomsday predictions.
“We’ve all seen this movie before," Johnson said. "We’re 49 days out from an election. A catastrophe is created, the media gets spun up. What the president is saying is you’re not all going to be dead in 10 years, okay? That’s a hoax.”
Despite the concerns, Congress appears unlikely to act soon. The House adjourned early this week and isn't expected back until after the midterms, and the Senate is set to leave within weeks.
A House bill passed this week addressing data-center electricity costs does not address the broader existential concerns researchers have flagged.
Democrats argue the president is badly misjudging the public mood. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said she's "never seen an issue rise to this kind of prominence and energy and anger like this one."
Polling backs that up: a recent Politico survey found 63 percent of American adults believe AI poses at least a moderate risk of destroying humanity.
