“AI Force” in the White House: Trump refuses to curb models and steps up the fight against safety calls

President Donald Trump opened a broad political and administrative front to confront the escalating debate over AI safety, describing warnings about the technology's risks as a new episode of what he called fabricated tricks aimed at undermining the industry. Trump announced his intention to create a dedicated body called the “AI Force”, modeled on the “Space Force” he established during his first term, pledging full support for the sector and protection from any attempts to curb its expansion, and confirming that he will soon announce the appointment of a new presidential coordinator for the portfolio after the position became vacant.

The latest escalation began with posts by the president on his “Truth Social” platform, where he deemed the term “artificial intelligence” inaccurate and lacking eloquence, launching a poll to choose an alternative name with options: “Superior Intelligence”, “Maximum Intelligence” or “Supreme Intelligence”. Trump said that what he described as attempts to destroy AI are reproducing earlier political campaigns, claiming that the attack initially targeted data centers before people recognized the financial returns and status they provide to the local communities that host them, and that the arrows later, in his words, shifted directly toward the technology itself after the first campaign failed.

These statements coincide with growing legislative complexities confronting computing infrastructure in the United States, as New York State imposes a freeze on licenses for large data-center projects amid bipartisan scrutiny of energy consumption. Trump had previously said at a sporting event that he does not object to establishing general regulatory frameworks, but at the same time attacked those who label them as negative forces raising these issues at an inopportune time, emphasizing that his administration will take charge of nurturing and developing the industry.

The declared alliance between the political leadership and hardware makers blocks any mandatory slowdown of the training pace.That was evident during a public exchange between Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, and Trump on stage at the “All-One” conference, where Huang agreed to label the controversy over the technology's risks as a trick, affirming that active companies will not allow any slowdown in development speed. The episode coincides with shifts inside the White House advisory team, as venture investor David Sacks left his role as coordinator for AI and cryptocurrency to assume co-leadership of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Conversely, the tech landscape is experiencing a sharp split, as the safety debate flared again following the resignation of a researcher at Anthropic in protest over his conviction that major labs are endangering communities and foresee the possibility of existential catastrophes before the end of the current decade. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei launched a plan to regulate the pace of advanced model development, receiving apparent endorsement from Sam Altman and Elon Musk, while industry critics argue that focusing on existential risks diverts attention from the technology’s tangible and immediate harms.

What is actually changing in the Arab region?This explicit alliance between the U.S. administration and major hardware firms serves as a decisive signal for technology officials and infrastructure managers in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant; the American commitment not to slow production ensures a continued flow of high-density computing hardware and processor chips without federal regulatory constraints that would limit model capabilities in the near term. However, the removal of strict regulatory frameworks in Washington shifts the burden of security verification and auditing directly onto buyers and institutions in the region, as unified safety standards imposed by the exporting state will not be available. Development teams in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Cairo will need to build self-assessment mechanisms for protection and data quality, while also confronting the operational challenge of securing local power and cooling supplies for data centers, in light of lessons learned from the licensing freeze in U.S. states such as New York.