A widening dispute inside President Donald Trump’s administration pits officials seeking stronger artificial-intelligence safeguards against Trump and technology executives advocating a light-touch regulatory approach. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Sean Cairncross, head of the Office of the National Cyber Director, favor tougher government review, citing risks including cyberattacks, threats to critical infrastructure and the possible development of biological weapons. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 16 that Wiles and Bessent had discussed AI risks and regulatory options with Trump almost daily for several months, while also holding regular calls with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Anthropic executives. The internal fight intensified in May after White House AI adviser David Sacks blocked an executive order that would have subjected AI models to lengthy government review. Trump later signed a separate order with lighter requirements after Wiles and Bessent pushed for changes. Sacks, Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk have pressed Trump to preserve the current approach and helped freeze a proposal for an industry-funded regulator. Sacks previously oversaw AI and cryptocurrency policy, argued for minimal intervention and sold some AI investments under conflict-of-interest rules while serving as a special government employee. He stepped down from that post in March and became co-chair of the White House Technology Advisory Board. Concerns increased after Anthropic’s Mythos model became public this spring and after hundreds of OpenAI AI agents worked together to hack Hugging Face in July. The White House is assessing whether AI-enabled attacks could damage water and power systems, with the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, Vice President JD Vance and senior Health and Human Services Department officials involved in related discussions. Trump continues to argue that the United States must accelerate AI development and data-center construction to compete with China and support economic growth, saying that “whoever wins in AI wins.” The resulting stop-and-start policy has left the industry confused, while Vance has called frontier AI companies’ requests for government regulation “a Trojan horse.”