Trump Vows to Keep US Ahead of China in AI Race While Naming DOJ as Backstop on Risks

President Donald Trump declared Monday that artificial intelligence would be bigger than the Industrial Revolution or the internet, and that the nation leading in AI would hold a decisive global advantage. In a Truth Social post, he said he would "only encourage AI or, SI (super intelligence)" and pledged to keep the United States ahead of China and all other competitors in the technology.

Trump dismissed concerns about AI dangers, which he has previously called a hoax, but acknowledged a limit to his hands-off approach. He said the Department of Justice and other U.S. law enforcement agencies would step in to rein in the technology "if we have to," framing those agencies as a backstop rather than a proactive regulator. "We will be careful," he added, while making clear his administration's default posture would be to foster growth rather than impose guardrails.

The remarks came days after Trump announced plans to create an "AI Force" and appoint an AI czar, moves signaling that his administration is building institutional infrastructure around the technology even as it resists formal constraints. The president has consistently framed American AI leadership as a competitive advantage over China, and Monday's comments reinforced that the White House sees the race for dominance in the technology as one of the defining contests of his term.