Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed fears of civilizational wipeout from artificial intelligence, comparing the recent alarms from inside AI labs to what he characterized as overblown warnings on the political left over climate change.
He invoked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) while defending President Donald Trump’s description of the AI alarms as a “HOAX.”
“When the president says ‘a hoax,’ what he’s referring to is, we’ve all seen this movie before,” Johnson said in response to a question about Trump’s remarks at a Tuesday news conference. “A catastrophe is created. The media gets spun up. Social media gets spun up. Everybody says we’re all … going to be dead in 10 years.”
He added: “You remember what AOC said — was it climate change? What was her stupid thing? She said, ‘We’re all going to be dead in 10 years’?”
“What the president is saying is you’re not all going to be dead in 10 years,” Johnson continued. “That’s a hoax.”
Johnson’s comment appears to refer to a comment Ocasio-Cortez made in 2019, shortly after entering the House, summarizing a UN report on climate change: “We’re, like, the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”
The remarks come as Republicans are caught between warnings from AI executives and the president’s demand that AI stay unregulated lest Chinese researchers leapfrog U.S. companies. The speaker reiterated during the news conference that he is hoping to meet with top AI executives and the president in a meeting at the White House later this week.
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