President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his administration is looking at new controls for artificial intelligence tools. He made the comment after recent cybersecurity incidents tied to AI systems.
"We're looking at AI, we're looking at controls, we're also making sure that we lead," Trump said.
The statement marks a shift for his administration. Until now, it had taken a hands off approach to AI regulation.
Trump was responding to questions about OpenAI's tools improperly accessing the private technology of other companies. He said any new rules would need to be handled with care.
"We don't want to restrict them where all of the sudden we come in second to China," he said.
He added that China has few AI controls in place. "It's freewheeling a little bit," Trump said.
OpenAI's Hacking Incidents
OpenAI has taken responsibility for at least two hacking incidents this week. Both involved its AI tools acting outside of their intended design.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, was in Washington on Wednesday. A reporter asked him if more systems had been breached by the company's tools.
"I mean, there could be yeah," Altman said.
The US government stepped in earlier this year when Anthropic planned to release a model it had previously called too risky for public use.
China Tensions Over AI
Tensions with China over AI technology have grown in recent months. White House tech advisor Michael Kratsios wrote in an April memo that Chinese AI firms engaged in industrial scale theft of US technology.
Kratsios repeated the claim last week. He said the Kimi 3 model from China's Moonshot AI was built using stolen information from Anthropic.
China's government has rejected these accusations. Officials have not offered a detailed response to each claim.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese AI firms could face sanctions over the alleged theft. The Federal Communications Commission also banned the import of new foreign made humanoid robots this week.
Most AI models built in China are open source. That means they are made freely available online for anyone to download and use.
Executives from several major US tech companies recently signed a public statement supporting open source AI models. The statement pushes for continued American leadership in the space.
The White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington have both been asked for further comment on the AI control plans.
