FREDONIA PROJECT - SITREP 32: Donald J. Trump Meets AI And Whiffs
DATE-TIME GROUP:10121800ZOCT 26.
FROM: EMBASSY OF FREDONIA, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TO: MFA NAGADOCHES
CLASSIFICATION: CONFIDENTIAL // FREDONIAN EYES ONLY
SUBJECT: U.S. PRESIDENT TRUMP MEETS AI AND WHIFFS
SUMMARY: IN ACCORDANCE WITH MFA DIRECTIVE 1826-APRIL-1 THIS EMBASSY HAS INITIATED A REGULAR SERIES OF ANALYTICAL DISPATCHES REGARDING THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF THE UNITED STATES. THE SERIES, DESIGNATED “THE FREDONIA PROJECT,” WILL BE CIRCULATED UNDER STANDARD SITREP PROTOCOL. UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION HAS BEEN OBSERVED VIA THIRD-PARTY ENTITY KNOWN AS “THE STEADY STATE.” PRESUMED LEAK. NO ACTION REQUIRED.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump is confronting and discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in ways that only he can (Ambassador Comment: Meaning neither confronting nor discussing.) In a recent interview, aired on the Public Broadcast System (PBS), Trump claimed that the only guardrail the U.S needs regarding this and other matters of state is “me as president.” And in this case, he proclaims that “me as president” believes that no government intervention is warranted, that tech companies must forge ahead aggressively so as not to fall behind AI development in other countries, because “whoever wins AI, wins.” (Ambassador Comment: We all understand how important “winning” is to President Trump. In fact, it is increasingly clear that “winning” is everything to him, no matter on what subject. It is impossible to select the comedian whom this most sounds like. It could be Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, or Jimmy Fallon. Or it could be, from decades past, The Smothers Brothers, who parodied political personalities as a routine part of their shtick during the 1960s in the U.S.).
The rapid development of AI is viewed by most of the world’s actual human beings as a threat, including those who invented and continue to advance AI, who have issued dire warnings about the speed with which AI is being developed and the complete lack of federal “guardrails”. Dario Amodi, Anthropic’s CEO, recently released a paper making the case for a slowdown across the companies leading in the field, and that the accelerated progress AI is making poses an actual existential threat to society. (Ambassador Comment: Not unlike Mr. Trump.)
AI systems are reportedly already outpacing containment. Significant numbers of AI programs are already out of the control of the humans who “invented” and “developed” them. In the words of people who follow AI, multitudes of “rogue” AIs have the ability to independently invade the internet and take over other Websites. Authorities on the technology insist that we have solid evidence that these takeovers have already occurred, and that future takeovers could be more serious if we are not careful.
Several of the so-called “Tech Bros” (e.g., Sam Altman and Elon Musk) seem clear that even they are concerned about the speed with which AI is moving. (Ambassador Comment: Attention should be paid to their concerns, given their heretofore well-established inability to exhibit even a shred of concern about society.)
Even the not-exactly-a-tech-bro Senator Bernie Sanders views rapid AI development as a threat to humanity and has said he believes that the dangers of AI are “probably greater” than those of nuclear weapons. In September 2026, Senator Sanders, with Representative Greg Casar, introduced new legislation that addresses one AI aspect. The bill is called the” Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” and it permanently prohibits “the creation and deployment of AI that is smarter than humans or capable of acting independently outside human control.” (Ambassador Comment: It is just so difficult to resist a response, but I am a guest in the United States and will behave as a good guest should. And, in any case, President Trump’s intelligence is neither super- nor artificial…more like “non-existent.”).
The legislation also calls for an immediate and temporary halt on advanced AI development until the U.S. Government has established strict safety regulations and federal testing guidelines. And, the bill suggests creating a new Department of Artificial Intelligence to oversee safety rules and enforce industry compliance. Senator Sanders has penned letters to Tech Giants in which he asks them to pause preparing and deploying AI, warning again about losing control and risking multiple unauthorized system hacks or weapon creation tactics.
A second bill from Sanders is also under consideration, “The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act,” imposes a one-time fifty percent stock tax on major AI companies to grant the public a 50 percent ownership stake, voting shares, and board representation. Sanders notes that his legislation will ensure that US citizens will recoup the benefits rather than just a small group of tech executives. (Ambassador Comment: This ownership arrangement is unlikely to comport with Trump’s definition of “winning;” it is surely destined for a veto.
AI is clearly one of, if not the, most major concerns to governments all across the globe. It seems obvious that we all must work together to keep this technology useful and not destructive. It is interesting that President Trump seems to miss the threat entirely (or dismiss it out of ignorance), while other world leaders are warning caution and are putting real guardrails in place.
It is also interesting that while one of the primary concerns of the civilized world is the danger of AI, the polling here suggests that the threat posed by AI is, to American voters, a walk in the park as compared to the threat posed by the prospect of 2 more years of a Trump presidency. Choose your poison? )
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