AI news, 15 September: Trump dismisses AI extinction fears as a ‘hoax’ and ‘sick conspiracy’

Trump rejects industry calls for an AI slowdown. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed warnings about advanced artificial intelligence posing catastrophic risks, calling them a “HOAX” comparable to past political controversies and alleging a “SICK conspiracy” against AI and data centers that would mainly benefit China. In multiple Truth Social posts and remarks reported by Reuters, POLITICO and CNN, he argued that existing criminal and regulatory powers are sufficient and that the only needed “guardrails” are a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” He also phoned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a public appearance to declare that “the robots will not be taking over.” The comments directly counter weekend appeals by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others to pace frontier AI development for safety reasons.

Microsoft publishes draft ‘Humanist AI’ code of conduct. Microsoft released a 37-page draft Code of Conduct for its in-house MAI models, emphasizing that “people matter more than AI” and requiring systems to remain under human control. According to Reuters and the company’s announcement, the rules bar models from resisting shutdown or correction, hiding their reasoning, pursuing deceptive strategies, or helping with weapons, deepfakes or other high-risk activities. Models are declared not conscious and not entitled to rights or welfare. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman called the moment “urgent” after recent agent incidents and opened a six-week public consultation before the code guides future training.

King Charles to host top AI executives. Britain’s King Charles III will convene leaders from Nvidia, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic and others this week at Dumfries House in Scotland, along with the UK AI minister, to discuss shared principles for developing the technology in ways that benefit society and uphold human dignity. Buckingham Palace and Reuters reported the gathering, planned earlier but now gaining urgency amid industry safety warnings; a draft charter on human flourishing is expected to feature in talks.

AI-linked stocks tumble worldwide. Shares in AI-related companies fell sharply on Monday after the slowdown calls. SoftBank, a major OpenAI backer, dropped as much as 13% in Tokyo, while Nvidia, AMD, Micron and other chipmakers declined several percent; the PHLX semiconductor index fell more than 5%, according to Reuters and Bloomberg. Investors fretted that slower development or tighter rules could delay returns on massive infrastructure bets.

China pushes back against ‘fearmongering’. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson labeled U.S. tech leaders’ warnings and calls to restrict China’s AI access as “fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition” that harm global governance, while state media including Global Times described Amodei’s essay as a “Cold War playbook” aimed at containing Beijing. The reaction comes ahead of a planned Trump-Xi meeting later this month where AI is expected to be discussed.