Washington, Sep 30
US Vice President JD Vance dismissed fears that artificial intelligence could turn into a “Skynet”-like force capable of taking control of nuclear weapons and unleashing killer robots, but warned that powerful frontier models already pose significant cybersecurity risks.
Vance said some public discussion surrounding artificial intelligence, now being called “super intelligence” by the Trump administration, had become excessively pessimistic and detached from the more immediate risks posed by the technology.
Speaking after a White House meeting with technology industry leaders, Vance said President Donald Trump wanted the administration to respond to Americans' concerns without allowing fear to drive policy.
“You have a lot of doomerism about AI or super intelligence as we're now calling it,” Vance said.
He said popular perceptions of AI were sometimes shaped by science-fiction scenarios.
“I think a lot of Americans, when they think of AI or SI, they think, ‘Oh my God, this is Skynet,’ right?” Vance said.
“They think the terminators are gonna come and take over everything and, you know, take over our nuclear weapons and have the robots running around killing people. And that's just not gonna happen.”
“That's actually not gonna happen,” he added.
Vance, however, drew a distinction between such scenarios and risks arising from how AI products are designed and deployed.
“What could happen is you have people who are building AI tools, not actually being careful about what they're doing, about the responsibility they have to build products that actually work, that don't hurt people, et cetera, et cetera,” he said.
Vance said developers should take responsibility for the products they create instead of asking the government to impose regulations on them.
He said the administration wanted an AI debate centred on ensuring that systems worked safely while holding companies accountable.
Vance later identified cyber capabilities as one of the most evident dangers already associated with advanced AI models.
“I think the most obvious negative use case of the Frontier models up to this point is the cyber capability,” he said.
“We have seen some of these models, by the way, they've been trained this way, but they have remarkable ability to enable hackers to hack into systems.”
Vance said the response should include giving technology companies stronger tools to protect their systems.
“The best weapon against cyber offense is good cyber defense,” he said.
The Vice President argued that companies vulnerable to AI-enabled attacks were well placed to develop defensive technologies capable of patching software and protecting computer systems.
Vance also stressed competition among technology companies as part of the administration's approach to managing AI risks.
He said robust competition and existing product liability rules could provide important safeguards without immediately imposing an extensive new regulatory system.
“Let's actually try what has worked in the past,” Vance said. “And if it doesn't work in the future, then build it out from there.”
“Let's not just throw a massive new regulatory regime against a problem that could make it worse,” he said.
Vance said regulations could play a legitimate role in improving safety and did not necessarily have to impede technological innovation. But he argued they had to be carefully constructed.
“Regulations can actually make us safer and they can be consistent with innovation, but only if they're careful and only if they're deliberate,” he said.
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