Former White House AI adviser calls safety ‘new Climate Change’

On Monday, David Sacks, former White House special advisor for AI and crypto, wrote on X that AI safety is “the new Climate Change” and called some warnings “Hollywood storytelling.” The post came six days after President Trump signed an executive order on AI safety.

The executive order asks AI companies to voluntarily submit their most powerful models for federal safety testing up to 30 days before public release. It directs federal agencies to develop safety benchmarks, assess AI models for cyber capabilities and strengthen defenses for critical infrastructure.

Sacks helped shape the policy environment that produced the order and now advises the administration through the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has labeled AI safety advocates a “Doomer Industrial Complex” and has repeatedly criticized what he calls alarmist narratives about emerging technologies.

He has also applied similar language to debates over crypto policy. Sacks helped advance the CLARITY Act through its early legislative stages; that crypto market structure bill is now moving through the Senate. The U.S. stablecoin framework known as the GENIUS Act became law in 2025.

Sacks has written that regulatory interference in technology can become a “takeover of the economy and information space.” He has linked his criticisms of AI safety measures to the same political arguments he used against stricter crypto regulation, saying safety narratives can be used to justify broader regulation.

His comments come as policymakers and industry debate how strictly to regulate advanced AI systems. The executive order establishes voluntary testing and federal benchmarking, while some senior advisers and officials express public skepticism about sweeping safety claims and the motives behind them.