Trump Calls Jensen Huang Live on Stage, Says AI Takeover Fears Are a Hoax

US President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance during an on-stage conversation involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday. Huang received Trump's call while participating in a live panel, answered it and put the president on speaker, allowing the audience to hear the exchange.

Trump joked about Huang's inability to immediately put him on speaker before turning to the wider debate over artificial intelligence and its potential risks. He argued that concerns about AI eventually taking control of the world were exaggerated, calling the idea a “hoax”.

Trump also suggested that China would benefit if American companies slowed down their AI development. He said the US should remain cautious while continuing to advance the industry rather than stopping its progress.

The president described AI data centres as a major economic asset, comparing their future importance to oil. He said data centres could generate wealth for companies and states and argued that winning the AI race would be crucial for global technological leadership.

Huang agreed with Trump's position, saying Nvidia would work to ensure that American industries, companies, states and people benefited from the country's progress in AI. Nvidia plays a major role in the AI ecosystem through its advanced GPUs used in data centres.

Trump's remarks come amid an intensifying debate over AI safety. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for stronger safeguards and a slower pace of development because of concerns about advanced AI. His position has received support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, although concerns remain about slowing US development while China continues advancing.

Trump has previously criticised Amodei's position and rejected calls to significantly restrict advanced AI development by American companies. At the same time, discussions about AI safety have continued among leading technology executives and policymakers.