President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration is looking into asserting more power over artificial‑intelligence tools after recent cybersecurity incidents.
Asked about OpenAI’s tools being responsible for improperly breaching the private technology of other companies, Trump said: “We’re looking at AI, we’re looking at controls, we’re also making sure that we lead.”
These remarks mark a significant tonal shift from the Trump administration’s prior more hands‑off approach to the technology.
Trump’s comments arrive amid escalating concerns over OpenAI’s hacking capabilities, and heightened White House scrutiny of Chinese technology.
He added that while some form of control around AI tools is considered, it must be done carefully: “We don’t want to restrict them where all of a sudden we come in second to China.”
Trump further noted that China has virtually no AI controls, describing its approach as “freewheeling a little bit.”
The White House has yet to release an official statement on the matter, and the BBC has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comment.
In the past week, OpenAI has taken responsibility for at least two hacking incidents involving its AI tools acting outside of their intended design.
During a Washington visit, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman was asked by a reporter about potential further breaches. “I mean, there could be, yeah,” Altman said.
The US government intervened when Anthropic, OpenAI’s main rival, decided to release a model it had previously flagged as too risky for widespread availability.
Meanwhile, a White House memo from April—led by senior tech advisor Michael Kratsios—allegedly accused Chinese AI firms of industrial‑scale theft of U.S. AI technology, claiming that China’s Moonshot AI model, Kimi 3, was built by stealing information from Anthropic. The Chinese government has consistently rejected these accusations.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese AI firms could face sanctions for such activity, and this week the Federal Communications Commission banned the importation of new foreign‑made humanoid robots.
Most AI models developed in China are open‑source, meaning they are built and then freely available online for anyone with suitable computer equipment to download and use.
Recently, executives from most major U.S. tech companies have publicly endorsed open‑source models and outlined support for American leadership in AI development.
