Bessent tells AI CEOs that 'alarmism without solutions' is not leadership and the labs own the risk

In an Axios interview published October 3, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back on warnings from Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Bill Gates about advanced models, saying labs that want regulation should slow themselves down and that responsibility sits with the people running them. He also argued the U.S. cannot cede AI leadership to China and that Chinese models lack adequate safeguards. The administration still plans to propose an AI incident-warning channel with Beijing, though a formal safety agreement has been rejected. Federal appetite for binding AI rules looks low heading into 2027.