The Trump administration has repeatedly signaled disinterest in regulating AI development as it seeks to keep pace with China. David Sacks, a presidential advisor on science and tech and the former White House AI Czar, reiterated that stance on Saturday, with a bit of a twist.
“Dario has written that we need to ‘pace the frontier,’ and Sam has agreed. People may be surprised by my response: go ahead,” Sacks wrote on X. “But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission.”
Sacks browbeat OpenAI and Anthropic in his post, saying that the companies didn’t want to slow down for altruistic reasons, but to gain favor in the markets.
“If you do, you’ll buy goodwill for the next conversation,” he said of a slowdown. “If you don’t, we’ll know this was just another bid for regulatory capture — or an election-season psyop.”
He drilled down on his criticism in a subsequent interview with CBS News.
“Well, I think if Dario believes that we’re going to have the worst outcomes, my question for him is, ‘Why are you doing this?'” he said.
He said he would push the issue back at Amodei and ask him what he’s doing to make frontier AI safe, and if he can’t, he “should probably either shut down the company, or step aside and let someone else lead it.”
