Trump says Americans could own stakes in AI giants
Photo: US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump said Americans could benefit from the rapid growth of artificial intelligence companies through partial government ownership stakes in those firms, reports Axios.
According to the US leader, such a model would effectively make Americans partners in the technological revolution and allow them to receive a share of the profits from companies whose market value could reach trillions of dollars in the future.
"There's something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public.It's like you make them [partners] in this revolution. It would be a beautiful thing. ... It would make 'em rich," he said.
As the media notes, the idea of such a mechanism has been promoted over the past year by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Meanwhile, independent Senator Bernie Sanders raised the issue again this week of citizens sharing in the profits generated by AI development, proposing to give the public a "direct ownership stake" in leading companies in the sector through a one-time 50% tax paid in shares.
At the same time, industry representatives who support a similar concept favor much smaller stakes for a dedicated government AI fund. Discussions have mentioned equity holdings ranging from 1% to 5%.
According to Axios, artificial intelligence technologies remain controversial for a large portion of Americans. Some industry leaders and apparently Trump himself believe attitudes toward AI will improve if citizens have an opportunity to participate in the creation of new wealth.
Ahead of potential public offerings by Anthropic, SpaceX, and OpenAI, the US president emphasized that the scale of future profits is so significant that part of those funds could be directed to American society.
"We'll look into that. We're talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI. And by doing that, they're gonna like it better ... We're leading China. We're leading everybody in the world with AI, and we want to keep it that way," Trump added.
The article notes that Altman has repeatedly raised the issue during private meetings with administration officials and also included it in proposals for a new AI development agenda. This week, he discussed the matter on Capitol Hill with Bernie Sanders and leaders of both American parties.
The idea of creating a "public wealth fund" was also included in OpenAI's policy paper, Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age, released in April.
Earlier, Trump signed an updated executive order on artificial intelligence oversight. The document allows the administration to postpone final decisions on regulating the industry while new rules for advanced AI models and response mechanisms for their cybersecurity capabilities are being developed.
The president's team abandoned the stricter approaches contained in the previous version of the order, arguing that they could slow innovation.
Earlier, US biotechnology startup Bexorg demonstrated its unique BrainEx platform, which makes it possible to sustain the viability of a human brain several hours after its owner's death.
