FirstFT: Donald Trump rejects calls from tech leaders for an AI slowdown

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Good morning and welcome to FirstFT. In today’s newsletter:

• Trump rejects calls for an AI slowdown
• Elon Musk’s secretive backer builds $40bn SpaceX stake
• Rare unity at the Brics summit
• Why Singapore pays its politicians like bankers

Trump rejects calls for an AI slowdown

Elon Musk’s secretive backer builds $40bn SpaceX stake

Rare unity at the Brics summit

Why Singapore pays its politicians like bankers

Donald Trump has rejected calls for an AI slowdown after tech bosses and Democrats urged tighter regulation of the industry over rising fears that the technology poses an existential threat.

The heads of some of the leading US AI groups — Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Sam Altman of OpenAI and SpaceX’s Elon Musk — over the weekend called for a more cautious pace of development following dramatic safety warnings over rapidly advancing model capabilities.

But the president said yesterday that while some “guardrails” were possible, it was imperative for the US to retain its international leadership in the area.

“Look, we’re leading China in AI . . . and, frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins,” Trump told reporters during a trip to his Doonbeg golf course in Ireland.

At a campaign rally in Athens, Georgia, Democratic senator Jon Ossoff blasted Trump for his response and accused tech titans of digging “bunkers” while warning of human extinction.

Safety concerns surrounding the rapid pace of AI advances were thrown into the spotlight over the past week after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned with a warning that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.

Altman and Musk rallied behind a call from Amodei to slow AI’s development — a rare display of consensus in an industry marked by fierce personal and professional rivalries. In an essay published on Saturday, the Anthropic chief said the tech industry “must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models”, after the speed of development became “drastically faster” this summer.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: India publishes August inflation figures.
• Middle East: Gulf states have postponed a crunch meeting with Iran on the management of the Strait of Hormuz because of a lack of consensus, setting back regional efforts to de-escalate hostilities over the vital waterway.
• Arctic summit: The European Arctic Summit continues in Rovaniemi, attended by European Council president António Costa and other European leaders to discuss the EU’s strategic approach to the Arctic region.

Economic data: India publishes August inflation figures.

Middle East: Gulf states have postponed a crunch meeting with Iran on the management of the Strait of Hormuz because of a lack of consensus, setting back regional efforts to de-escalate hostilities over the vital waterway.

Arctic summit: The European Arctic Summit continues in Rovaniemi, attended by European Council president António Costa and other European leaders to discuss the EU’s strategic approach to the Arctic region.

Five more top stories

1. A Russian drone hit a train near Ukraine’s border with Poland shortly after a group of visiting dignitaries passed through the crossing yesterday. The former British prime minister Boris Johnson, the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt and various European security officials had crossed to Poland along the same line just before the strike, according to Bildt and a representative of the summit the dignitaries were attending.

2. India’s central bank has rejected Tata Sons’ attempt to avoid a forced listing, a move that will oblige the vast conglomerate to undertake a radical transformation of its structure and operations. Tata must comply with the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines “immediately”, it said, setting the stage for what could become India’s biggest IPO.

• More India business news: PwC is to merge large parts of its India operations in a drive to expand offshore consulting work and better grapple with the impact of AI.

More India business news: PwC is to merge large parts of its India operations in a drive to expand offshore consulting work and better grapple with the impact of AI.

3. A low-profile venture capital firm has amassed a $40bn stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, emerging as one of the rocket maker’s largest shareholders. Vy Capital, which has a four-person investment team, first invested in SpaceX in 2016 at a valuation of about $15bn. It has since built a roughly 3.4 per cent holding, according to a recent securities filing.

4. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen launched her presidential campaign with a promise that French people would “have priority in their own country”, emphasising her party’s cornerstone goal to grant citizens preference on social housing, welfare and government jobs. Le Pen is also seeking to stamp her authority on her Rassemblement National party after weeks of internal tensions.

• More Europe news: Sweden’s election is too close to call, with the leftwing opposition bloc and rightwing government locked in a dead heat, according to early results.

More Europe news: Sweden’s election is too close to call, with the leftwing opposition bloc and rightwing government locked in a dead heat, according to early results.

5. South Korea is arming itself against industrial spies targeting its world-leading semiconductor industry, broadening its espionage laws for the first time in more than seven decades as Chinese rivals close the technology gap. Those who steal “national secrets” on behalf of foreign countries may now be prosecuted as spies and could face sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

‘Trumpism’ spawns rare unity at Brics summit

Critics often slate the Brics as a motley collection of emerging markets that agree on little and achieve even less. But leaders of the 10-nation Brics bloc — including China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and summit host Narendra Modi — had little difficulty in uniting over the weekend to express opposition to US President Donald Trump’s policies. FT reporters have more from New Delhi on the “growing frustration with Trumpism”.

We’re also reading . . .

• Private equity and golf: The new owner of Japan’s professional men’s golf tour wants to save the sport by copying the playbook used in the US.
• Joseph Stiglitz’s ‘progressive AI agenda’: A slow AI rollout will disappoint investors. A fast one risks undermining the industry’s own foundations. But managed carefully, this technology could benefit us all.
• Paul Theroux: The pioneering writer on the problem with luxury hotels, how not to be a tourist and why he’s still travelling solo at 85.

Private equity and golf: The new owner of Japan’s professional men’s golf tour wants to save the sport by copying the playbook used in the US.

Joseph Stiglitz’s ‘progressive AI agenda’: A slow AI rollout will disappoint investors. A fast one risks undermining the industry’s own foundations. But managed carefully, this technology could benefit us all.

Paul Theroux: The pioneering writer on the problem with luxury hotels, how not to be a tourist and why he’s still travelling solo at 85.

Chart of the day

Singapore’s political leaders are the highest paid in the world, with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s new S$3.6mn ($2.8mn) package seven times the size of Donald Trump’s presidential salary. Owen Walker explains why the city-state pays its politicians like bankers.

Take a break from the news . . .

The HTSI women’s AW26 fashion special is here, featuring an interview with Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, fashion’s power couple. Plus, the designers embracing the ripped, shrunken, frayed and even soiled; Zoe Suen on
”wow” shoes; and textile designer Celia Birtwell shares her love of jewellery.

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