Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent likened AI executives who call for government regulation to Hannibal Lecter, arguing their warnings amount to alarmism rather than leadership. He pointed to OpenAI's decision to shelve a new model as evidence that labs can police themselves without Washington stepping in.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent compared AI chief executives who want the government to regulate their industry to a famous movie villain. Speaking on "The Axios Show" on Saturday, Bessent said: "I mean, it's kind of like Hannibal Lecter: Stop me before I kill again", referencing the cannibalistic serial killer from "The Silence of the Lambs."
Bessent argued that AI leaders who call for federal guardrails without pairing those calls with their own action aren't showing leadership. He said companies building the technology should slow development themselves rather than wait for Washington to intervene.
White House pushes self-policing over new rules
The comments echo the administration's response to a group of AI leaders who last month called for an organized slowdown across AI companies, citing fears the technology is advancing beyond their control. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was among those who asked the government to step in and regulate AI companies directly.
President Donald Trump convened AI executives at the White House, a meeting that produced a voluntary self-policing pledge rather than new regulation. Bessent said AI companies appear to be heeding that approach already, calling the labs very cooperative. He cited OpenAI's recent move to shelve a new model after internal tests raised questions about whether it would follow user instructions.
Safety concerns persist inside the industry
Not everyone in the AI community shares Bessent's confidence. Some figures have warned that the race to dominate the sector is fueling a disregard for safety guardrails. Anthropic's head of public policy, Sarah Heck, said on X last week that companies can't do safety from second place.
Source: Business Insider
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