Trump says AI safety fears a 'hoax' as he rejects calls for greater safeguards

US President Donald Trump has said fears about the safety of artificial intelligence (AI) are a "hoax", as he criticised calls to have more guardrails in place for the fast-moving technology.

Clark's comments followed warnings about the risks the technology poses to humanity that have been raised in recent days by several executives and staff at leading AI firms.

In a series of social media posts, the US president compared warnings about AI to the "Global Warming Scam" which, he said, was "being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats".

The only "guardrails" needed for AI was a "strong and smart" president, said Trump.

Chinese state media said experts had warned that "Washington's growing anxiety over China's rapid AI development appears to be increasingly distorting its policy priorities".

Clark, who is one of Anthropic's seven founders, said earlier on Monday that a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous was something society "might want to eventually pass rules around".

UK Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said on Tuesday that people should "never be complacent" about the impact AI might have but added: "We've got to be careful not to get hyperbolic about this either."

A growing number of tech industry and political figures are calling for better safeguards, most recently Microsoft AI which this week discussed limiting the models it is developing in a document on what it called "humanist AI".

In an indication of how concerns over the technology have been thrust into the spotlight, two high-profile figures on opposite sides of US politics are set to appear at the same event calling for a re-evaluation of AI policy.

According to its website the gathering "aims to define a shared vision and articulate a better, more human-centric path for AI development".

Sanders told BBC's Newsnight last week that "we have got to do something immediately to stop the uncontrolled growth of AI".

The debate over the potential dangers posed by the technology intensified in recent days after a post by Jacob Coxon, a researcher who left Anthropic over concerns AI could wipe out humanity, went viral.