The debate over artificial intelligence regulation is drawing unexpected political allies and opponents, revealing a complex web of interests. Lina Khan, the former F.T.C. chair, argues the government already has powerful tools to regulate A.I. companies under the FTC Act. David Sacks, the investor and former Trump administration A.I. czar, agrees with Khan and dismisses A.I. companies' requests for legal cover from antitrust laws to cooperate on safety standards.

Meanwhile, Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer of Palantir, argues in an essay that the effective altruism movement is behind the freakout by A.I. researchers, linking effective altruism to Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX. This argument has been circulating in Silicon Valley among A.I. maximalists who favor less regulation.

Donald Trump opposes any sort of A.I. slowdown, viewing it as a weakening of U.S. national security. He wrote on social media that "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT" and derided Dario Amodei of Anthropic as someone "now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel.'" During a phone call with Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Trump called the concerns a "hoax."

Barack Obama, who employed Jay Carney as press secretary, emphasized that choices about A.I. should be made by all of us, not just companies, as the technology could result in breakthroughs or unleash economic disruptions.