Former US President Donald Trump told internet icon Logan Paul that he once delivered a “beautiful” speech generated by artificial intelligence (AI) during a meeting with “top people” in the industry, and was extremely impressed with the possibilities the technology offers.
Speaking on Rogan's podcast, the former president praised AI as a “superpower” but also raised questions.
President Trump praises AI as a superpower
Trump recalled: “I had my speech rewritten by a top AI. He said, 'Oh, you're giving a speech? Yes?' And he clicked, clicked, clicked, and 15 seconds later there was this amazing, beautifully written version of my speech. And I said, 'Let's use this.' I'd never seen anything like it.”
However, the 78-year-old presidential candidate did not provide details about where he used the AI-generated speech.
“One of the industries that's going to disappear is all these great speechwriters,” Trump said.
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“I've never seen anything like this before, and it happens so quickly, it only takes a few minutes. It's kind of scary.”
When asked how Trump responded to his speechwriters after using AI-generated text, he joked, “You're fired,” echoing his famous line from the reality show “The Apprentice.”
President Trump urges caution against deepfake technology
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president in 2024, also spoke about the dark side of AI, particularly the threat of deepfakes. He described a hypothetical and alarming scenario in which an AI-generated audio could falsely claim that the US has launched a nuclear missile, sparking actual retaliatory strikes by another country.
“If you're the president of the United States and you announce that 13 missiles have been sent, don't use the name of the country,” Trump elaborated.
“We just launched 13 nuclear missiles somewhere. They will hit their target in 12 minutes and 59 seconds. And you are that country.”
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Trump said he discussed the scenario with tech mogul Elon Musk, noting that any verification of such a claim would require encryption. Musk reportedly told Trump that countries like Russia and China would need to quickly verify the authenticity of a message, which could be problematic in a critical situation like this.
“Who the hell is going to check this? I've got like 12 minutes, let's check the code,” Trump said.
“So what will they do when they see this? They will probably fight back. It's very dangerous in that sense.”
