Here’s what AI leaders are saying about Trump’s new safety plan

“This is the largest industrial revolution in history. And we’re going through the single largest infrastructure buildout in human history. It’s creating a million jobs here in the United States[...]” “There’s no conflict between innovation, technology, and safety. But we are going to have to create new technologies to advance the capabilities of AI, but we’re also creating new technologies to advance the safety of AI. All of this technology is being developed by the industry today. You see behind me just an incredible number of leaders in our industry, moving together as one, and we’re going to advance this technology that is so consequential to humanity, so consequential to the future prosperity of our nation. And we’re going to do it responsibly and safely.”

Before I get into Pichai’s comments, I need to highlight this out of amusement: Trump introduced Huang by repeatedly describing him as a “very handsome guy.” But when inviting Pichai to speak, Trump told journalists that “you have no idea who the hell [the execs] are — this guy is a monster and nobody knows. What a great life.” Pichai did not seem amused by this despite awkwardly laughing it off.

“[We’re] really proud to be here today as an industry. I think this moment is historic and consequential, and I think there are extraordinary benefits to this technology. You can see it in the GDP growth we see. We have to make sure we are addressing the risks and the President has asked us as an industry to step up and we want to make sure we’re putting out products safely.”

“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of AI — uh SI, pardon me — I think by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance where we don’t have just universal basic income, we have universal high income. People speak about medical benefits, I think maybe it’s worth talking a bit more about that. When you have robots and you have super intelligence, it means that everyone in the world can have better medical care than anyone here, including me. And wouldn’t that be wonderful?” [ Journalist: “Not if they haven’t got a job.” ] “Well, jobs are going to change. Jobs have always changed. Being a computer used to be a job. There used to be buildings full of people doing calculations. And I don’t think anyone is pining to go back and do calculations all day. So I think we’ll see an evolution of roles.”

“I will say what I’ve always said, which is that AI has incredible benefits. I’ve talked about the medical benefits to technology. As the President has said, you know, whoever wins AI wins. I think that’s very important. But I think the technology has very real risks and the mechanism how we address those risks is still under discussion. But we all need to work together to make sure that we can win, and we can win safely. If we do this right, we work with the President and everyone here, we can win safely.”