FFormer President Donald Trump shared his mixed feelings about artificial intelligence with YouTuber Logan Paul on Thursday, describing the technology as a “superpower” that writes “beautifully” while calling its capabilities “alarming.”
His comments on Paul’s podcast ‘Impaulsive’ provide insight into how the 78-year-old presidential candidate thinks about the rapid advancement of technology, which 49% of Americans feel worried.
Fears of deepfakes increasing the risk of nuclear war
Trump said he saw a fake video of himself promoting a product that was so convincing it made him question whether it was real. He went on to note his concern that the harm from deepfakes could be much greater, describing a scenario in which a deepfake video of the President of the United States saying “we just sent thirteen nuclear missiles… and they will hit their targets in 12 minutes and 59 seconds.” ‘ could cause a rival leader to preemptively launch a retaliatory attack. Trump says he asked Elon Musk if there was any way for this hypothetical leader to discern the authenticity of the video; Musk is said to have said “there’s no way.”
The idea that disinformation increases the risk of nuclear war is not entirely hypothetical. In September 1983, at the height of the Cold War, a Soviet early warning system incorrectly detected 5 incoming missiles. Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov chose to ignore the reports, potentially avoiding a nuclear catastrophe. More recently, in December 2016, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif addressed a nuclear threat in Israel after being deceived by fake news. Experts have warned that deepfakes could increase the threat of nuclear escalation in the coming years.
Energy challenges and competition with China
Trump emphasized what he sees as the importance of the United States being at the forefront of technology development. “We have to take the lead on China,” he said, noting that AI systems are energy-intensive. This energy is necessary both to power the computer chips used to train the systems and to prevent overheating. He went on to say that environmentalists’ concerns about energy use could “set us back,” causing America to lose ground to China.
To date, computing chips and human talent – not energy – have proven to be the most crucial factors for AI creators; however, in April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concerns this energy could become a bottleneck in the future. For years, big technology companies invested in clean energy to offset its carbon footprint, although China remains the world leader in renewable energy.
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The fear that environmentalists will cause the US to lose to China is a theme well known to Trump, who in 2012 tweeted “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make the US manufacturing industry uncompetitive.” He later he said climate change is not a hoax in January 2020, although he continued go back and forth at this point.
Bipartisan consensus on AI risk
In the interview with Paul, Trump called Biden “the worst president in the history of our country” – emblematic of the polarized nature of American politics. However, concern about the risks posed by AI appears to bridge the partisan divide.
In October last year, Biden approved a Executive order which sought to address some of the dangers of AI, including deepfakes, and maintain US dominance in AI. In May 2024, a bipartisan group of senators, led by Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.), revealed their “AI Roadmap” which requires the implementation of protective barriers against these risks, while investing billions in technology.
Trump said he met “supergeniuses” in San Francisco who helped him understand AI. “They gave me $12 million for the campaign,” he said. “You know, four years ago they probably wouldn’t have done this.”
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This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
