US President Donald Trump rejected international efforts to impose new regulations on artificial intelligence during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, while saying the US would continue pushing ahead with AI development.
Trump also said the US government would refer to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” in its documents going forward.
Trump also compared concerns over the potential risks of AI with warnings about climate change, which he has repeatedly described as a hoax.
“The United States … totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now,” Trump said.
He criticised AI sceptics by referring to “the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming—a name since reborn to climate change because the planet was cooling, not warming—and nobody was dead.”
Trump promotes ‘super intelligence’ at UN
Toward the end of his 37-minute UN speech, Trump turned to artificial intelligence and announced a change in terminology for the technology.
Trump said US government documents would use “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence,” following a social media poll in which he had asked users to suggest alternative names.
“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term ‘super’ as opposed to ‘artificial,’” Trump said.
Trump argued that the word artificial “makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing. But we have to be careful.”
Trump opposes new AI regulations
Trump also reiterated his opposition to new regulations targeting AI technology, although he said the US government would monitor the sector and intervene if necessary.
“We’re going to watch it closely through the Department of Justice,” Trump said, referring to the federal law enforcement agency.
He also said the government would “rein things in” if needed and would lead the sector safely and responsibly.
At the same time, Trump said the US would encourage the development of advanced AI rather than restrict it.
“I’m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution,” he said.
Trump’s position contrasts with calls from some AI industry leaders for additional safeguards.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have recently called for greater attention to AI safety and the pace of development.
AI race with China remains a priority
Trump framed AI leadership as an important component of US global competitiveness, saying the country that wins the technology race would have a significant advantage.
“That’s the group that wins, and we’re leading now over China by a lot, and everyone else, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Trump said.
His comments come as the US and China continue developing separate AI supply chains and competing over advanced technology.
AI is expected to be a central issue in upcoming discussions between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The UN discussion on AI also comes amid broader international debate about safeguards for increasingly capable systems.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for stronger global oversight of AI risks in his own General Assembly address on Tuesday.
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