Trump Rejects Global AI Rules at U.N., Casting Speed as America’s Advantage

The United States is publicly rejecting a global framework for controlling AI just as the United Nations is working toward common understandings on international AI governance. In an address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 22, President Donald Trump argued that America should encourage AI development rather than constrain it, framing leadership in the technology as a contest the country must win.

Trump said the U.S. “totally rejects” attempts to build what he called a globalist scheme to control artificial intelligence. He said that whoever masters the technology first wins, and said he would not stifle growth in a field he described as potentially bigger than the Industrial Revolution.

The United States ... totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now.

President Donald Trump, addressing the U.N. General Assembly

A competitiveness argument, not a governance plan

The speech set out a clear preference for development over international controls. Trump characterized AI as “super intelligence,” said the U.S. would encourage it rather than rein it in, and proposed calling the technology “SI.”

That language is more than a branding flourish. It casts AI policy as a question of national advantage: rules that limit development can be portrayed as a handicap, while rapid progress becomes the measure of success. Trump also tied the need to compete to concern about falling behind China, according to TechRadar’s account of the address.

The U.N. process Trump is pushing against

The administration’s position lands amid an active U.N. effort to shape multilateral AI governance. Earlier this month, the president of the General Assembly said the body’s task includes reaching common understandings on priority areas for international AI governance. The Assembly has also created an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and organized a Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

Those efforts do not settle what rules governments will adopt, or whether major AI powers will accept shared constraints. Trump’s position puts the U.S. at odds with the process’s stated aim of finding common international understandings.

A widening disagreement over pace

Trump’s stance also contrasts with recent calls from OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei for greater regulation and a more deliberate pace for the technology. The disagreement is not simply over terminology or tone. It is over whether competitive pressure is a reason to resist new constraints or a reason to establish them before capability advances further.