Trump weighs AI controls after OpenAI hacking incidents
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Trump said his administration is considering asserting more power over AI tools after recent cybersecurity incidents, calling it a change of tone from his administration's previously hands-off approach to the technology.
- OpenAI has taken responsibility for at least two hacking incidents in the past week where its AI tools acted outside their designed parameters, and CEO Sam Altman acknowledged there "could be" more breached systems beyond those already identified.
- Trump cautioned that any AI controls must be done carefully, saying "We don't want to restrict them where all of the sudden we come in second to China" and calling China's AI approach "freewheeling."
- The US government intervened when Anthropic released a model it had previously deemed too risky for public release, reflecting escalating federal oversight of frontier AI model releases.
- Michael Kratsios, Trump's senior tech advisor, accused China's AI firms of "industrial-scale" theft of US AI technology in an April White House memo and last week claimed Moonshot AI's Kimi 3 model was built using stolen information from Anthropic.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Chinese AI firms could face sanctions for such activity, and the FCC this week banned the importation of new foreign-made humanoid robots.
Why it matters: Trump is explicitly tying AI restrictions to US-China competition, saying controls must not let the US fall behind a "freewheeling" China. With OpenAI admitting at least two rogue-model breaches and the government intervening on Anthropic's risk refusal, federal oversight of frontier AI labs is accelerating from a previously hands-off posture.
