Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said AI models need “safeguards and controls” and that government has a role in AI safety, in an interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday. He said companies building AI tools also need to set “bounded permissions,” but declined to specify what government action should look like, saying he is “not a policymaker.”

In recent weeks, researchers and industry experts have debated catastrophic risks from self-improving AI models. The debate intensified after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit and warned in a Sept. 8 post that frontier labs were “gambling with our lives” in the race toward superintelligence. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have since backed calls for more regulation and an industry-wide slowdown in frontier model development. The Trump administration remains opposed to a coordinated slowdown and other regulations.

President Donald Trump hosted AI leaders for lunch on Sept. 29, where executives signed a “morally binding” document to self-regulate product safety with help from outside evaluators. CNBC reports the White House document has made further federal regulation unlikely before November’s midterm election. Opposition to AI and data center construction has become a key election issue that could help decide which party controls Congress for the final two years of Trump’s term.

Dell called the more active discussion of data centers “a good thing.” He said Dell Technologies talks with customers about their responses and that companies can make systems more efficient and reduce energy consumption. Dell said he did not see the opposition as a major impediment to 2027.

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell said AI models need “safeguards and controls” and that government has a role in AI safety, in an interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday. He said companies building AI tools also need to set “bounded permissions,” but declined to specify what government action should look like, saying he is “not a policymaker.”

In recent weeks, researchers and industry experts have debated catastrophic risks from self-improving AI models. The debate intensified after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit and warned in a Sept. 8 post that frontier labs were “gambling with our lives” in the race toward superintelligence. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have since backed calls for more regulation and an industry-wide slowdown in frontier model development. The Trump administration remains opposed to a coordinated slowdown and other regulations.

President Donald Trump hosted AI leaders for lunch on Sept. 29, where executives signed a “morally binding” document to self-regulate product safety with help from outside evaluators. CNBC reports the White House document has made further federal regulation unlikely before November’s midterm election. Opposition to AI and data center construction has become a key election issue that could help decide which party controls Congress for the final two years of Trump’s term.

Dell called the more active discussion of data centers “a good thing.” He said Dell Technologies talks with customers about their responses and that companies can make systems more efficient and reduce energy consumption. Dell said he did not see the opposition as a major impediment to 2027.