Trump's former AI czar David Sacks dismissed frontier AI safety regulation as scaremongering just days after his own administration signed a voluntary safety testing order.
Six days after the White House issued a directive requiring AI companies to voluntarily submit frontier models for federal safety testing, the administration's top artificial intelligence policy voice compared the concern behind that directive to climate change alarmism.
David Sacks, who served as White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto and now advises the administration through the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, reposted a message on X on Monday with a one-line caption: "AI is the new Climate Change." Yahoo News first reported the post. The comparison was not intended as a compliment.
The timing makes the statement hard to read as casual commentary. Sacks helped shape the policy environment that produced the June 2 order, which directed federal agencies to develop safety benchmarks and assess AI models for cybersecurity risks.
The order Sacks is undercutting
That executive order asked AI companies to submit their most powerful models to federal testing up to 30 days before public release. Agencies were directed to develop safety benchmarks, evaluate AI systems for cyber capabilities, and shore up defenses around critical infrastructure. On paper, it was among the more concrete AI governance moves the administration had made.
Sacks's post six days later raises an obvious question about how seriously the administration intends to enforce the spirit of what it signed.
A familiar playbook
This is not Sacks's first dismissal of AI safety concerns. He has previously labeled advocates a "Doomer Industrial Complex," accusing former Biden administration officials and effective altruist groups of inflating threat narratives for political gain. That framing maps directly onto his longstanding argument against aggressive crypto regulation: safety concerns are cover for regulatory expansion, not genuine risk management.
Structural, not accidental, is how best to describe the parallel. Sacks drove the CLARITY Act through early legislative stages, a crypto market structure bill now working through the Senate. His consistent move across both domains is to recast safety arguments as a pretext for government control of the economy and the information space. The playbook stays the same; only the technology changes.
Industry's divide
Not everyone in tech shares the skepticism. Microsoft has consistently backed government oversight. Sarah Bird, the company's chief product officer for responsible AI, argued this month that countries including India should regulate artificial intelligence to build trust with consumers and businesses, while acknowledging that rules must not choke innovation. That dual condition is precisely the tension Sacks declines to engage.
Scale adds urgency to the debate. Forbes noted earlier this year that ChatGPT has reached 800 million monthly active users with roughly $20 billion in annual recurring revenue. CNBC reported in March that OpenAI is targeting a public offering as soon as Q4 2026, with CFO Sarah Friar building out a finance team for a market debut. Companies operating at this scale will eventually face scrutiny that goes beyond voluntary self-reporting, regardless of what any senior adviser posts on X.
What the signal actually means
The harder question is whether the Trump administration views its own safety order as substantive policy or as a diplomatic document, something to show international partners while signaling to industry that enforcement will stay soft. The order relies on voluntary compliance, with no penalties specified for companies that skip the pre-release testing window.
Sacks now operates outside the White House proper but retains real informal authority through PCAST. His characterization of artificial intelligence safety as Hollywood storytelling tells engineers, investors, and policymakers which way the administration actually leans, regardless of what the Federal Register says.
Congress still has to advance any binding AI legislation, and international partners are watching whether Washington's safety commitments carry weight. If the operational stance is that frontier AI risks are narrative rather than substance, companies will calibrate their compliance posture accordingly. The executive order is on paper. Sacks's post is the actual brief.
FAQ
What did Trump's AI safety executive order actually require?
The June 2 order asked AI developers to voluntarily submit frontier models for federal testing up to 30 days before public release. Agencies were directed to develop safety benchmarks and assess AI capabilities for cybersecurity risks. No penalties were specified for non-compliance.
Who is David Sacks and what is his current role?
Sacks served as White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto during the first phase of the Trump administration. He now advises through the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, retaining significant informal influence over U.S. AI and crypto policy.
What is the "Doomer Industrial Complex"?
A term Sacks uses to describe what he characterizes as a coordinated effort by former Biden administration staffers and effective altruist-aligned organizations to amplify AI threat narratives for political gain rather than genuine safety purposes.
What is the CLARITY Act?
A cryptocurrency market structure bill that Sacks drove through early legislative stages. It is currently working through the U.S. Senate and is considered a significant piece of crypto regulatory infrastructure.