AI Leaders Warn of Catastrophic Harm; Tech Stocks Slide in Response

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Nathan Hager (0:09)

Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager.

Karen Moskow (0:11)

And I'm Karen Moskow. Here are the stories we're following today.

Nathan Hager (0:15)

Karen, we begin with the latest from the Middle East. Officials in Yemen say Iran-backed Houthi militants have seized more key islands in the Southern Red Sea. It is adding to pressure that's forced Saudi Arabia to shut down the East-West pipeline. That's been the kingdom's key alternate route for crude around the Strait of Hormuz. We get the latest from Bloomberg Middle East editor Patrick Sykes in Istanbul.

Patrick Sykes (0:37)

Saudi Arabia said that this pipeline was closed on Thursday as what it called a precautionary measure after a series of attacks that caused several injuries in the area. The drone attack, we understand, has come from Iraq rather than Yemen, but it's clearly having an impact on the oil markets.

Nathan Hager (0:55)

And Bloomberg's Patrick Sykes reports Iran has postponed a meeting with several Gulf nations that was planned for today on establishing a temporary shipping route through Hormuz. Iran's foreign ministry says Saudi Arabia asked for the delay in light of the latest attacks. And checking crude prices right now, Brent is up 3.2 percent, just shy of $108 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate said $103.26, a gain of 3.2 percent.

Karen Moskow (1:18)

Nathan, with the conflict driving up energy prices, President Trump is urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold off on attacking oil refineries in Russia.

Donald Trump (1:28)

He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel.

Karen Moskow (1:38)

President Trump said he spoke with Zelensky about it, but it's unclear how Ukraine will respond. Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, and Ukraine has responded with strikes on Russian energy. Here in the US, diesel averages a record $6.23 a gallon according to AAA.

Nathan Hager (1:57)

Well, Karen, President Trump spent the weekend attending the Irish Open at his family's Dunbeg Resort, and he made an announcement as he handed the winning trophy to Ireland's own Shane Lowry.

Donald Trump (2:06)

On behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off of...

Nathan Hager (2:13)

The cheering drowned out the president as he said he'll remove 10% tariffs from Irish whiskey.

Irish distillers had lobbied for the relief. Whiskey from Scotland as well as Northern Ireland is not subject to 10% duties under the US-UK trade deal. The president received a red carpet welcome from Ireland during his two-day trip, though was not without controversy. On Saturday, he sparked a backlash from Northern Ireland when he said he supports a unified Ireland, but later in the weekend, he said he was just sharing his opinion.

Karen Moskow (2:40)

We turn to the markets now. Nathan and stocks are dropping around the world after leaders of the biggest artificial intelligence firms proposed slowing the technology's development. South Korea's KOSPI dropped more than 3%.

Right now, NASDAQ futures are down 1.7%. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are promising measures to reign in the pursuit of cutting-edge AI models to better understand the risks posed by the technology. The developments come after President Trump laid down the need for further guardrails on Sunday.

Donald Trump (3:11)

We're leading China in AI. We're the most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins, AI wins. And we can put guardrails. We can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up. And they're bringing up things that won't happen. But whoever wins with AI wins. You know, it's an expression that I came up with and it's true.

Karen Moskow (3:36)

In June, President Trump signed an AI Cybersecurity Executive Order leaving companies to decide whether to have new models reviewed by the government. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is backing stronger safeguards.

Hakeem Jeffries (3:48)

We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down, as the CEOs have recently acknowledged, slow down the pace of development in order to protect the American people and ensure that AI is proceeding safely.

Karen Moskow (4:03)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, may the comments on ABC's This Week catch the program Sundays on Bloomberg Radio.

Nathan Hager (4:10)

Well, after AI leaders' dire warnings, Karen, China is hitting back.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman says, countries should promote open, inclusive, universally beneficial and ethical AI development. He said, quote, fear-mongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance and serve the interests of no one, end quote.