US President Donald Trump has rejected calls to slow AI development. Prominent AI executives had urged a more cautious pace. Trump argued the United States cannot afford to lose its lead over China.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump said the US remains ahead in artificial intelligence. He wants to keep that position. “We’re leading China in AI,” he said. He added that “whoever wins AI, wins.”

Trump’s comments follow public calls from major technology leaders. They want a slower, more carefully controlled pace of development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk have all backed efforts to slow frontier AI capabilities. Their concern centers on increasingly autonomous systems. Additionally, they worry these systems could become difficult to control. Amodei, in particular, has called for stronger independent safety evaluations.

The debate intensified after researchers raised new warnings. They said future AI systems could enable major cyberattacks. Some even warned these systems could operate beyond human control. However, Trump has taken a different view. He argued that losing ground to China poses a more immediate danger.

Trump said AI should still carry safeguards. Still, he pushed back against suggestions that progress should slow significantly. He also questioned some of the more extreme warnings. He described certain scenarios as the work of “negative forces.” Later, though, he clarified he was not dismissing the concerns entirely. Instead, he predicted AI would ultimately deliver more benefits than harm.

The president has previously described AI as a revolution larger than the internet. He consistently frames leadership in the field as a US-China contest. Meanwhile, this dispute is creating an unusual divide in Washington and Silicon Valley.

Some AI companies want governments to set common safety standards. This way, no single company risks falling behind by slowing down alone. Meanwhile, critics of stricter regulation argue firms can introduce their own safeguards. They say this works without government intervention across the industry.

The issue is also gaining political weight. Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. AI competition could feature in those broader technology talks. For now, Trump’s stance suggests Washington is unlikely to support a broad slowdown. This holds true even as executives warn the race itself is becoming increasingly dangerous.