Donald Trump has signalled he will push for rapid artificial intelligence growth, issuing a watered-down executive order on model review last week and another demanding the US military accelerate AI adoption, as the debate over public control of the technology intensifies.
Any prediction that Trump will rein in AI for safety reasons “is laughable at this point”, said Blake Montgomery, the US tech editor at the Guardian. Trump told reporters last week that his administration would “look into” taking financial stakes in leading AI companies, with Sam Altman reportedly participating in discussions with senior White House officials. “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” Trump said. “We’ll look into that.”
“Trump pushes AI growth with executive orders while Sanders proposes taking 50% stock in AI firms.”
The stance comes as Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, proposed a far more radical intervention: creating a US sovereign wealth fund by taking 50% stock in AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI. Writing in the New York Times, Sanders asked: “Will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed AI, with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?”
Nathan E Sanders and Bruce Schneier, authors of the book Rewiring Democracy, agree that “the most urgent risk posed by AI is the concentration of power, wealth and control among tech oligarchs”. But they argue for a different approach: energy taxation. “Energy taxation is a straightforward way to make AI companies pay for the social disruption of their technologies,” they wrote in the Guardian.
Trump’s executive order on model review sought but did not mandate a government review of AI models 30 days before their release. He had postponed signing in late May, telling reporters: “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s gonna get in the way of that lead.” A previous version would have enforced mandatory review 90 days in advance. A second executive order directed the defence department to accelerate AI adoption, particularly for national cybersecurity.
The contrasting visions raise questions about whether AI’s vast wealth will flow to a few or be shared publicly. As Anthropic and OpenAI race to become trillion-dollar companies, the choice between democratic control and unchecked growth has never been starker.