Australia

Canberra, September 15, 2026. The Australian press reports on the barrage of messages on Truth Social in which Donald Trump swept aside calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence on Monday, but they are reading it mainly through the prism of the rivalry with China and its own diplomatic and economic interests.

On ABC News, the American president assures "we are ahead of China" and that "whoever wins AI wins", rejecting any new regulation that he attributes to "very negative forces". He describes the idea that AI "takes control of the world, destroys humanity" as a "HOAX", according to SBS News, comparing this alert to "other hoaxes" from his first term, including the Russian investigation and his impeachment.

The Age emphasizes that the episode goes beyond American domestic controversy: "ask Greg Moriarty", the new Australian ambassador to Washington, who is "spending a surprising amount of time" on this issue "compared to other interests". The newspaper notes that data centers are becoming a highly politicized issue as the mid-term elections approach, while the House of Representatives suspends its legislative work until after the November election, making, according to ABC, "significant Congressional action unlikely" before this deadline.

The repercussions are also being felt on the stock market: The Age reports that tech stocks plummeted on Wall Street after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for a "deliberate and global" slowdown, citing the risk that a swarm of agents could "take control of the entire internet" within six to twelve months. Nvidia fell by 3.4%, and the Australian ASX was expected to open 0.2% lower. Trump retorted by mentioning a "SICK conspiracy" against AI and data centers, claiming to already have "considerable CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power" over these companies, and targeting Amodei, who is accused of playing the "perfect little angels".

PerthNow notes that the president claims the only safeguard is "a STRONG and INTELLIGENT president (with a high IQ!)", a phrase repeated in several Australian headlines as an illustration of a style of governance rather than a set policy.