As artificial intelligence grows more capable and consequential, a fault line has opened in American public life between those who see safety concerns as a threat to progress and those who see unchecked progress as a threat to humanity itself. President Trump dismissed AI safety warnings as politically motivated fiction, while some of the technology's own architects called for mandatory kill switches and slower development, citing extinction-level risks. The debate, once confined to research labs and boardrooms, has now reached the floor of politics, markets, and geopolitical rivalry — a sign