WASHINGTON — Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed Tuesday that fears about artificial intelligence morphing into a “Terminator”-style takeover of humanity are “nothing but an effort to influence the midterms.”
Blanche made the contention during an unusual press briefing in the Rose Garden as he served as the latest substitute press secretary following Karoline Leavitt’s departure last month.
“The president calls it a hoax, the way this has come around today and not three weeks ago,” Blanche said as reporters dripped with sweat in the blazing late-summer sun.
“I was watching the news today. Every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about AI after being eerily silent for months and months and months.”
“To talk about the timing of this as being nothing but an effort to influence the midterms, I shouldn’t have to say that out loud,” he added.
“Of course that’s what it is. And that shouldn’t be what drives the decisions that we’re making around AI. We can’t lose the AI race to China.”
Fear about AI vaulted into public discourse last Tuesday when Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee, wrote on X that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Coxon claims that there “will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”
The rapid recirculation of Coxon’s warnings by Democratic officials spurred speculation by Republicans that his disclosure was coordinated with politically connected organizations interested in regulating AI.
Blanche told reporters: “I do not think it’s the job of the Department of Justice to regulate. We’re prosecutors, not regulators. So we’re not going to try to regulate AI.”
“There’s a lot of criminal laws,” he said. “And so, if anybody associated with AI violates criminal law, we’ll investigate that. We already have. There’s plenty of cases involving AI that we have charged individuals.”
“AI is extraordinarily beneficial to our society,” Blanche added.
“There’s a lot of great work that AI does, and it’s also something that conveniently has become a flashpoint this week.”
Trump has dismissed mounting public concern, writing on Truth Social Monday: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), calling for regulation, fired back: “Even if we had a high IQ president right now, and we surely don’t, it wouldn’t be enough.”
The nation’s top law enforcement official, whose lectern was positioned in the shade as the sun began setting over the West Wing, joked about the sweaty mess he saw before him — as he fended off hostile queries and called on one reporter by identifying their glistening bald scalp.
“Are you guys sweating yet?” he asked, proclaiming himself comfortable and jokingly offering water to journalists broiling in suits as the Rose Garden’s new white pavers reflected the full sun.
“I’m very sorry that you’re sweating,” he said later, adding, “I’m not really sorry.”
Before walking down the colonnade, Blanche paid tribute to Leavitt, who has yet to be replaced, self-deprecating, “She’s a lot better than me, and so thank you guys very much.”
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