The Trumpification of AI: What Could Go Wrong? David Corn

[justaprogressive]

There are only a few potential existential threats to human society, as far as we know. Nuclear weapons are the most obvious. Climate change, in the worst case, could lead to assorted doomsdays. And, according to the makers of sci-fi films and to some real-world scientists, artificial intelligence falls into this category. Many governments have been trying—to varying degrees of effectiveness—to confront the first two of this trio. Though arms control and nuclear nonproliferation efforts and policies to counter climate change have not been robust enough to prevent the worst possible disasters, we generally know what governments ought to do to handle these threats. It’s more a matter of political will. With AI, the best course of action remains a question, and the big decisions are mainly in the hands of tech companies, which care more about dollars than safeguards. Donald Trump just further empowered these firms.

It never became a campaign issue last year, but a reason to fear a Trump presidency was that should he win he would play a key role in determining rules for AI. Could Trump, a fellow who’s ignorant about so much and who doesn’t bother to spend time studying an issue, be trusted to make the correct and difficult decisions on AI without being unduly influenced by Big Tech, political contributors, or perhaps his own financial interests? Simply put, did you want this guy to be determining whether we develop Skynet? It was a conversation the American public didn’t have.

Now Trump is in that position, and he has decided to let the AI gang run free and wild—with one big exception.

Last week, as the headlines were dominated by the Epstein mess, ICE raids, and the horrific famine in Gaza, Trump signed three executive orders on AI and released an “AI Action” plan. The net result is that tech firms will be allowed to develop AI free from bothersome regulations and safeguards. Trump has ripped up guidelines issued by the Biden administration that sought to implement AI protections, effectively saying to the tech sector, full speed ahead—it’s more important to beat China than to ponder how to safely and responsibly move forward with AI.

So who will be calling the shots on AI? Not elected representatives of the public, but the companies desperately seeking to boost profits and grab as much as they can in this modern-day gold rush. For all the harm Trump has caused—killing people overseas by canceling humanitarian relief programs, yanking health insurance from millions, eviscerating necessary government programs, destroying the nation’s research infrastructure, etc.—this maybe one of his most

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/artificial-intelligence-ai-trump-big-tech-chatgpt-openai-google-meta/]