Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared artificial intelligence executives who are calling for government regulation — while they publicly worry about the technology going rogue and erasing humans — to serial killers who are begging to be locked up.
Bessent said it didn’t make much sense to him during a Saturday interview with Axios. When Axios co-founder Mike Allen asked if he felt the doomsday fears about AI were “BS,” Bessent busted out a reference to one the most famous sickos in movie history.
“I believe that we have to be prepared for every occasion,” Bessent said. “But on the other side, I think this alarmism without solutions by some of the AI community, that’s not leadership.”
Allen jumped in and said, “Well and it’s not just some in the community, it’s the CEOs [who] are basically screaming for regulation, warning of losing control of AI.”
“Well, then they should slow down,” Bessent said. “It’s kind of like Hannibal Lecter: stop me before I kill again.”
If you’re unfamiliar, Lecter is the cannibalistic killer who was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in his Oscar-winning 1991 performance in The Silence of the Lambs. Lecter — who was created by novelist Thomas Harris — was also portrayed by Succession star Brian Cox in the 1986 flick Manhunter. There have been a number of other movies to include Lecter since then.
Bessent’s interview comes as AI regulation has been a hot topic over the last month. Anthropic boss Dario Amodei warned in September “we must slow down the pace” of AI development to make sure it doesn’t go rogue and hurt humans. Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — two rivals who rarely agree on anything in public — quickly endorsed his take.
President Donald Trump went the other way and scoffed at the doomsday fears about AI, saying they are nothing more than a “HOAX.” He has said he’s not even a big fan of the term “artificial intelligence” — instead opting to call it “super intelligence.”
The president vowed he will not burden AI companies with new regulations, arguing it is imperative American companies stay ahead of China in the AI race; he said the best defense against AI going off the rails was having a a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT” like himself in the Oval Office.
Trump held a White House summit on Tuesday featuring a number of the top AI and tech execs. The president told reporters afterward he is depending on the AI companies to keep up their “tremendous self-policing,” rather than throw new regulations at them.
Watch above via Axios.
New: The Mediaite One-Sheet “Newsletter of Newsletters”
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!