US President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the "Winning the AI Race" AI Summit at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC, on July 23, 2025. (Getty)
Some in the movement have also pledged to give away a portion of their income, while others have argued about the morality of earning as much money as possible in order to give it away.
A former Defense Department official familiar with the industry’s leaders told Fox News Digital that since a 2017 speech at an effective altruism forum in which he laid out his vision, Matheny has "been very deliberate about inserting personnel who share his AI-doomerism worldview" into government and government contractor roles.
"Since then, he has made good on every single one of his calls to action to explicitly infiltrate think tanks, in-government decision makers, and trusted government contractors with this effective altruism, AI kind of doomsayer philosophy," the official continued.
A RAND Corporation spokesperson pushed back against this label and said that Matheny "believes a wide range of views and backgrounds are essential to analyzing and informing sound public policy. His interest is in encouraging talented young people to embrace public service."
The spokesperson added that AI being an "existential threat" is "not the lens" through which the company approaches AI, but said, "Our researchers are taking a broad look at the many ways AI is and will impact society – including both opportunities and threats."
In his 2017 speech, Matheny discussed his vision of influencing the government from the inside and outside to advance effective altruistic goals.
"The work that I've done at IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) has convinced me that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit within government positions that we should be picking as effective altruists. There are many different roles that effective altruists can have within government organizations," Matheny told an effective altruism forum in 2017, before going on to explain how even "fairly junior positions" can "wield incredible influence."
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President Trump has made AI dominance a key part of his agenda. (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP)
Its solution was to increase regulations on the development of AI and add new government reporting requirements for companies developing the technology. For many in the industry, this was seen as an example of government overreach that stifled innovation and hurt the U.S.’s ability to compete with countries like China.
The order has since been revoked by Trump’s AI order, which was signed in the first few days of his second administration. However, as head of RAND, a public policy and research advising group, Matheny and RAND have continued to push their vision for AI regulation and warn about the potential pitfalls.
RAND has posted on social media in recent months warning that AI will "fundamentally reshape the economics of cybersecurity" and that the "growing use of AI chatbots for mental health support means society is 'deploying pseudo-therapists at an unprecedented scale.'"
Semafor reported earlier this year that the Trump administration was butting heads with Anthropic, a top artificial intelligence company with ties to the EA movement and the Biden administration, on AI policy.
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"It's hard to tell a clean story of every single actor involved, but at the heart, the Doomerism community that Jason's really at the heart of, what they are really concerned with is they truly believe about a runaway super-intelligent model that takes over the world like a Terminator scenario," the former DOD official told Fox News Digital, adding that the fear of Effective Altruists that AI is an "existential threat" has led to their push that is "restrictive" to the "growth of the technology."
"With respect to the Trump administration’s AI policies, much RAND analysis is focused on key parts of the President’s AI Action Plan, including analysis we’ve done on AI evaluations, secure data centers, energy options for AI, cybersecurity and biosecurity," the RAND spokesperson said.
"Mr. Matheny appreciates that the Trump Administration may have different views than the prior administration on AI policy," the spokesperson continued. "He remains committed, along with RAND, to contributing expertise and analysis to helping the Trump Administration shape policies to advance the United States’ interests."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/meet-ex-biden-appointee-who-could-be-major-force-against-trumps-ai-agenda-doomsayer