The Trump administration's hard-on for AI, explained

The article examines how the Trump administration, including the president himself, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials, views artificial intelligence through a lens of gender and 'woke' politics — treating AI as an inherently masculine, "dominant" tool that only a strong ruler can control. Trump has repeatedly dismissed AI safety warnings as "hoaxes," proposed appointing an "AI czar" open only to "High I.Q. individuals," and attempted to rebrand AI as "Superior Intelligence." The administration has also mandated that AI companies with federal contracts align their models with the administration's views on climate change, transgender identity, and DEI initiatives.

As figures like Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman have called for slowing AI development, right-wing media outlets — including the New York Post, Fox News, and The Free Press — have attacked AI critics by associating them with the "effective altruism" (EA) movement, painting EA adherents as woke elitists and, in one case, sexually deviant. The Pentagon's Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering has posted slogans like "Americanism, not effective altruism" and "The United States will continue to be AI DOMINANT!" on X.

Stanford professor Fred Turner analyzes this pattern as Trump's strategy of converting policy debates — about land use, water, electricity, and AI regulation — into interpersonal dominance contests where he can assert machismo and protect his personal financial interests in data centers. Turner argues the administration deliberately projects "masculine dominance in a cruel way" to scare enemies, recruit allies, and muddy substantive policy discussions by entangling them with sexual style and ethics.

(Source：Mother Jones)