Scott Bessent: AI Alarmism Without Solutions Is Not Leadership
The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has criticized AI leaders for their doomsday predictions without offering practical solutions. He made these remarks during an interview with Axios, published on Saturday.
"This alarmism without solutions by some of the AI community, that’s not leadership," said Bessent, as Bloomberg reported.
In September, prominent figures in the AI industry, including Dario Amodei from Anthropic, Sam Altman from OpenAI, and Elon Musk from xAI, called for a slowdown in developing advanced AI models. Bill Gates also warned that AI could potentially cause "a billion deaths."
Bessent attributed the responsibility for managing these risks to the companies themselves:
"It is the people at the labs who have to accept responsibility, and I agree with that."
When asked about executive calls for regulation, he responded, "Well, then they should slow down."
Racing Against China but Talking Too Much
Bessent echoed former President Donald Trump, who has dismissed AI doom predictions as fake news and rejected new federal regulations.
"We cannot lose our lead to the Chinese," said Bessent. He further warned that Chinese models can match US ones in power, but without the necessary safety measures.
Despite this, the US plans to propose a system for warning China about serious AI incidents, according to Axios. The goal is to enable both governments to act proactively before issues escalate.
Bessent discussed AI with He Lifeng, China's Vice Premier, in New York in September. They addressed risks such as rogue AI agents and the potential use of AI by non-state actors for cyber or biological attacks.
This openness, however, has its limits. Trump recently stated that he does not want an AI safety deal with China.