And Now Trump Says He Has a $500 Billion AI Cure for Cancer
The president called in OpenAI chief Sam Altman to explain how it works.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s day two pledge was to cure cancer through an artificial intelligence initiative with $500 billion in private sector investment.
Calling his mammoth infrastructure project “Stargate,” the president said the AI project would create 100,000 new jobs “almost immediately.”
Trump then prompted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to explain more about the medical hopes for the plan spearheaded by three of America’s AI leaders.
Announcing The Stargate Project
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 21, 2025
The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure…
Altman said it was “the most important project of this era” and claimed that diseases from cancers to heart ailments “will be cured at an unprecedented rate.”
The AI boss added that the cures will come at a “rapid, rapid rate.”
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Joining Altman and Trump were Softbank Group CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Corp Chairman Larry Ellison.
“One of the most exciting things we’re working on - again, using the tools that Sam and Masayoshi are providing - is a cancer vaccine,” Ellison explained.
“You can do early cancer detection with a blood test. And using AI to look at the blood test, you can find the cancers that are actually seriously threatening the person. So, again, cancer diagnosis using AI has the promise of just being a simple blood test.”
The Texas-based Stargate would attract an initial investment of $100 billion, rising to $500 billion over four years, according to the Associated Press.
“AI seems to be very hot,” continued Trump. “It seems to be the thing that a lot of smart people are looking at. It is going to be a golden age,” he added, repeating his inaugural vow that America had a bright future under his presidency.
“This is money that would normally have gone to China,” he insisted.
The president went on to list his initial edicts, saying “There has never been a first day like yesterday.”
He repeated some of his executive orders, involving immigration, the Jan. 6 pardons, energy initiatives, and DEI mandates.
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