Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Addressing reporters inside the US Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson says Donald Trump will soon be leading a meeting with AI executives and lawmakers.

“I think the president is going to summon everyone together, probably at the White House” either this week or next, Johnson says.

“That hasn't been scheduled yet, but it's in process,” he continues.

“There'll be a deliberate discussion about the responsibility of the companies to maintain safety and what role, if any, the government has to play in that.”

Image source, Getty Images

In his recent post, Donald Trump says he is "not happy" about Google's plans to invest in Finland's infrastructure.

So, what's happening in Finland?

Last week, the company said it would buy up to half of the electricity produced by one of Finland's nuclear power plants as part of a record €13bn (£11bn; $15bn) investment in the country's AI infrastructure.

The package will fund three new data centers, expand an existing site and support energy projects that will power AI services, with construction expected in 2027 and 2028.

Google isn't the only company choosing Finland. TikTok also recently announced a $1bn investment to build a new data centre there, with companies choosing the country because of its cool climate.

Colder temperatures mean they use less energy needed to cool facilities which use a lot of computer servers.

"This investment underscores Google's commitment to grow our presence responsibly, pairing the expansion of our technical infrastructure with new energy capacity, grid enhancements, and energy affordability initiatives," says Google's president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat.

Michael Race
Business reporter in New York

US stock markets have recovered from earlier falls in share prices on Monday afternoon, with trading broadly flatlining.

Trading has been in negative territory for most of Monday as investors, especially those focused on tech firms, digest a potential slowdown in AI development.

However, inflation eating away at earnings due to higher global oil prices caused by the Iran war is also a factor, as well as expectations of interest rate increases and concerns over government borrowing levels.

The stock market has been trading strongly for a long time now due to the investment in AI and the firms which supply the materials to develop it, so while there's been a slight negative reaction to this weekend's news, the broader picture is one of growth.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Capitol Hill

House Speaker Mike Johnson just entered the US Capitol, met by a flock of reporters firing off questions about AI.

His remarks reflected the thin line Johnson must walk this week, treading between Trump’s overt wishes to downplay AI concerns and bipartisan calls for regulation.

"We want to emphasize the necessity of [AI companies] providing safe products and self-regulating," Johnson says.

He carefully added immediately afterwards: "There is also a role potentially for Congress to play."

When asked if the House would "take action" on the latest AI concerns this week before breaking for the midterms, Johnson replied: "This is a very complex issue."

He said he would meet with AI executives "soon", either this week or next.

Trump steadfast in his belief that AI shouldn't be regulatedpublished at 19:03 BST

19:03 BST

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

We've just heard again from US President Donald Trump, who has taken to Truth Social to push back on the idea that AI should be regulated.

As he did earlier today, Trump has framed regulation as something that would hinder economic growth and drive businesses "into oblivion and backruptcy".

Trump often frames his administration's policy decisions in business terms that would benefit American firms and his promise to usher in a new "golden age" in America.

And despite repeated warnings from industry insiders and mounting evidence of potential dangers, Trump has framed the threat from AI as a "hoax" of the kind that led to various impeachment and legal proceedings throughout his political career.

That's a term the US presdent also uses frequently when being criticised. He has, for example, recently claimed the term "affordability" is a hoax from Democrats to hurt Republicans in the upcoming midterms.

As public concern grows over the potential impact of AI, Trump is steadfast in his belief that regulation would harm the US economy, putting him on a collision course with lawmakers who seem to be leaning in the opposite direction.

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark says he is "grateful" Donald Trump is paying attention to calls for AI to be regulated, after the US president rejected for a slowdown in development.

In an earlier Truth Social post - which you can read in full - Trump suggested a strong president is the only guardrail needed and stressed "WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!"

A few minutes ago, the president also described claims AI could take over the world as a "hoax" and that the technology "will not be stopped".

Clark tells the BBC: "We're grateful that the president of the United States is paying attention to this issue... It's important that we have a national conversation here."

Trump's social media post suggested that the US currently leads China on AI, but Clark warns this lead could be lost if public trust in AI disappears following a "horrible accident".

"How do we avoid this for AI? You need to build public trust and avoid an accident or a disaster, that's what we're trying to do here," he adds.

US President Donald Trump earlier hit out at Anthropic boss Dario Amodei after he called for a slowdown in development of the technology.

The president has just posted again on Truth Social, he says:

"Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?

"AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX, no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA — UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE — IMPEACHMENT HOAX #1 — IMPEACHMENT HOAX #2 — and all of the other HOAXES and SCAMS that America was forced to endure through the Destructionists’ and Deviants’ foul play and illegal conduct.

"President Xi, of China, just announced that China will be doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of AI, or its future.

"Google has recently stated that they want to build a massive Plant in Finland, all because they are finding permitting too difficult in the United States.

"I am not happy about this, and want them to change their thinking. AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History ­­— Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet.

"It will not be stopped by brilliantly run Destructive Forces during the Term of President DONALD J. TRUMP!"

During his interview, Clark responded directly to concerns from BBC viewers - including worries about the impact on future generations.

Economics editor Faisal Islam asked: "Do you get that people are really scared right now from what they're hearing from sensible sounding people like yourself, who do understand what's going on in the heart of your companies like we can never understand?"

Clark agrees: "We need to slow the rate in which we increase the capability of these systems further," adding that AI technology will "revolutionise" science and change the economy.

But, he says, "we don't need to keep amping up the amount change while we as a society are still trying to figure out how to get our arms around this technology and deal with its capabilituies and risks".

As a result, he adds, AI development shouldn't keep barrelling forwards "all gas no brakes".

Mitch Labiak
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Our economics editor Faisal Islam has just interviewed Jack Clark - here's a bit more about him.

You may not have heard of him, but Jack Clark is one of the biggest names in AI.

One of the seven co-founders of Anthropic, alongside the much more public-facing Dario Amodei, Clark is a Brit who used to work at rival AI firm OpenAI.

Before that, he was a tech journalist for business outlet Bloomberg Business Week and tech outlet The Register. He still writes an AI newsletter called Import AI for around 100,000 readers a week.

Back in his days as a hack, over a decade ago, he wrote many articles on AI, such as pieces about how the dominance of men in the sector might influence algorithms, or about how supercomputers and AI were the "next big thing".

More now from Jack Clark, who says he doesn't agree that there is a 10% risk of human extinction - but acknowledges a "major risk" to society.

He says AI could soon become more intelligent than humans, and questions: "How well do you fancy your chances at being able to deal with a system that is 100 times smarter than the smartest person on the planet?"

AI, Clark adds, is getting more powerful "by the day". "The thing about AI is it moves much, much faster than any normal technology."

"We need urgent action now," he adds.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

AI firms should be required to have a "kill switch" which can be checked by a third-party, a co-founder of one of the world’s largest AI firms suggests.

Jack Clark from Anthropic tells me a kill switch was the kind of thing society "might want to eventually pass rules around".

Clark says Anthropic already had a kill switch, a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous, but said it was also an idea for governments and policymakers.

Clark’s comments come as concerns around AI’s power to kill all humans grows. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei recently called for AI development to slow down, though some have questioned the motivations behind this.

He tells me "most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug", but suggested this should be a requirement.

"Should you mandate for companies to definitely have a kill switch? Is that kill switch verifiable by a third party?" he asked.

"I think that’s the kind of thing society is going to want to know and might want to eventually pass rules around."

Last week, the UK government rejected the idea of creating a kill switch.

Tom Gerken
Tech reporter

MPs have been calling for new laws on AI, saying it posed a threat to human rights. The UK government has now responded.

A spokesperson tells the BBC it "takes the risks from advanced AI extremely seriously".

"These risks cross borders, so we are working closely with the companies developing the most advanced systems, and with our allies and international partners," they say.

"That includes building a rigorous, scientific understanding of the capabilities of the most advanced AI systems and the risks they pose through our AI Security Institute (AISI)."

But it comes less than a week after the Financial Times reported, external Anthropic withheld its latest model from the AISI, which is one of the leading bodies in the world for assessing AI risk.

Anthropic declined to comment on this at the time. Neither did the Cabinet Office - instead saying it "continues to collaborate closely with industry partners, including Anthropic, to make models safer".

But it raises some questions as to how much oversight the UK truly has.

Brandon Drenon
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Brandon Drenon/BBC

I've just entered the US Capitol, preparing to quiz members of Congress over rising concerns surrounding AI.

This is the last week both the House and Senate will be in session, before House members depart ahead of the November midterm elections.

That means it's the last five days any AI-related legislation has the chance of being passed for at least the next few months.

It's an urgent issue, driven by multiple recent calls from leading AI experts - including head of the AI company Anthropic - sounding the alarm about the dangers of the technology and a need for government intervention.

Will Congress be able to reach a consensus in time? I'm here to find out.

AI has supercharged misinformation, and it's getting harder to spotpublished at 17:11 BST

17:11 BST

By Thomas Copeland

AI has allowed anyone to generate hyper-realistic images, videos and audio at little or no cost, and that’s dramatically changed the nature of misinformation we debunk at BBC Verify.

When I joined the team a year ago, there often were obvious signs of AI-generation, like images of people with three arms or seven fingers. But now a lot of the fakes can no longer be spotted with the naked eye.

Sometimes AI is used to generate content to chase clicks online, like these fake pictures of Taylor Swift’s wedding. Some social media platforms allow users to monetise viral posts like these.

But they can also be used as part of efforts to manipulate people’s opinions about important news stories, like these AI deepfakes of celebrities spreading false claims about Ukraine which were made by a disinformation group aligned with Russia.

We’ve seen how this has spiked during periods of uncertainty and heightened tensions. At the start of the US-Israel war with Iran we tracked an unprecedented wave of AI-generated misinformation.

And beyond fake imagery, we’re seeing how attempts to embed AI across every part of our digital lives can have unintended consequences. We investigated an app that used AI to monitor police radios and issued false crime alerts across the US.

Some AI companies have taken steps to help us find the fakes.

OpenAI and Google both use a watermarking tool call SynthID that can identify when AI has been used to generate images and videos. But by the time we can debunk them, some have already been viewed millions of times.

For more on how we detected AI images and videos, here’s a 90 second explainer.

Dan Woodland
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Richard Whittle, Professor of AI and Public Policy at the University of Salford, says while AI poses an "existential threat" in the near future, it is already posing a "significant" risk to the UK economy.

"What we've got to remember is that right now in our economy, there is a significant amount of economic risk that is slightly hidden behind all the AI hype," he tells the BBC.

He adds that businesses are already heavily integrating AI into their business models, making them reliant on certain tools and therefore particularly vulnerable to any potential prices rises.

"How many of the start-ups that have sprung up in the last few years can survive if AI prices increase five times or 10 times? And they seem to be quite realistic price rises."

There are also issues in developing a dependence on AI to replace the labour supply, Professor Whittle explains, adding: "If they (businesses) actually get rid of the humans they need to do the job, then they've got to pay the cost of the AI, irrespective of what it goes up to."

Professor Whittle says we have a "cost cutting culture" in the UK and we are yet to see someone using AI to create value or "something extra in our economy".

Businesses therefore need to rationalise the allure of AI, which is in effect short term cost savings, and take a "long-term sustainable view" of the technology in order to "protect the economy", he adds.

Jonah Fisher
Environment correspondent

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

There are some who hope that artificial intelligence might in the future come up with some solutions to climate change.

But it’s clear that before that happens, powering and cooling the data centres that run AI is going to put an even greater strain on the environment.

Data centres need significant amounts of electricity to run and can, depending on their design, also require large amounts of water to keep the systems cool.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), external a typical AI-focused data centre consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households - but the largest ones currently being built consume 20 times that.

The IEA estimates that in 2024 data centres accounted for about 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption, with that figure set to double by 2030.

That electricity has to come from somewhere, and though use of renewable energy sources is expanding rapidly, at present nearly 60% of the world’s electricity is generated from burning fossil fuels.

So, in the short term at least, running more data centres is likely to mean even more of the greenhouse gases that warm our planet.

Talk of AI slowdown causes fall in tech stocks - what happens if it becomes reality?published at 16:22 BST

16:22 BST

Michael Race
Business and economics reporter

Image source, Getty Images

While US stock markets have fallen in early trading as investors weigh up the impact of any potential slow down to AI development, they have been performing strongly over the longer term.

In the year to date, the Nasdaq index, which is dominated by tech companies, is up 12%, while the S&P 500, which tracks shares of America's biggest companies, is up more than 10% over the same period.

Given the huge amounts of money being poured into AI development and other companies which supply the materials, such as microchips, to develop the technology, it's not surprising that investors have been somewhat spooked by the announcements over the weekend.

It is yet to be seen whether the calls to slow down AI development will become reality and what impact any such slowdown might have.

If demand from AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic slows, then what might be the knock-on effect to the likes of Nvidia, Intel and Marvell Technology who produce the chips?

Mere talk of it has so far seen share prices for those firms fall 3.5%, 6.2% and Marvell Technology down 7.18% today. However, it's important to point out that shares in Alphabet, the owner of Google which is behind Gemini, are in positive territory along with Microsoft, which created Copilot.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic, which made chatbots ChatGPT and Claude respectively, have announced intentions to list on the stock market in order to raise more money to fund their growth, but they remain private companies for now.

A big chunk of the stock market these days is made up of tech companies, all of which are betting on AI to change the world (for the better) and produce strong returns.

Pension funds invest in US shares, and so what happens in these companies matters to people across the world.

Image source, Reuters

US Vice-President JD Vance tells journalists the government wants to "be careful" and "regulate smartly" following calls from AI industry heavyweights to slow down the development of AI.

Asked if he is concerned by the comments, Vance says "there are obviously risks".

He says that he feels "a little bit weird" about AI companies asking the government to regulate them, likening it to a "Trojan horse'".

Vance adds that "the Chinese are engaged in this long-term AI race against the United States". The government wants to make sure "we do things smartly, but we stay ahead of the curve", he says.

He says the "best way" to regulate AI would be to find "real consensus" between Congress and the White House to "make it stick".

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

In his latest Truth Social post, Donald Trump says that his administration has "stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad 'things'" and references Dario Amodei, the CEO of tech firm Anthropic.

Anthropic recently faced off in court after the US Department of Defense designated the tech company a supply chain risk in February.

The Pentagon took this action after Anthropic refused to allow the military to use its AI models for tasks including surveillance or autonomous weapons.

Anthropic then took the federal government to court, arguing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had overstepped his authority.

In August, a judge upheld Anthropic's compaint, ruling that the Defense Department's action was "illegal and baseless".

Trump's dismissal of AI guardrails is politically riskypublished at 15:34 BST

15:34 BST

Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter

Donald Trump’s recent post on AI guardrails shows he remains dismissive of the need to implement them, and concerned that any effort to do so would put the US at a disadvantage on the international playing field.

The US president often frames his policies as ones that benefit the US economy and keep it ahead of its global rivals, particularly China.

His views, however, are not ones that are shared by large swathes of the American public, with polls showing that many are growing increasingly concerned about what AI could mean in the future.

One Pew Research poll released just a few weeks ago in August indicates that more than half - 52% - of Americans are more concerned than excited about the prospect of AI taking a greater role in daily life.

Notably, Trump's vice-president, JD Vance, was more guarded in remarks this morning, saying that the US government remains "concerned" by AI and is "thoughtful about the risk", even if it needed to maintain an edge over China.

Trump might not be on the ballot in the midterms and the 2028 presidential race, but other Republicans will be - and increasingly anxious voters may mean that political winds may begin to shift towards AI regulation in Congress, despite the president's efforts.

Vance, for his part, said that "ideally" Congress and the White House agree and are able to "achieve consensus" on the regulations.