It's also possible that any calls for reasonable regulation were just pandering towards investors. Key FTX people also called for regulation of the crypto market, after all. It projects a willingness to be a good and compliant company, even if they'd wish they themselves wouldn't have to comply.

He didn't say he doesn't want them. He said AIs, for a lot of reasons, may not be able to operate within the confines of potential regulations. For a simple example, they may be trained on work that was not properly licensed in the EU. That's only one compliance challenge in one dimension, but there are a large number of dimensions in which AIs might fall outside the mandated parameters.

Obviously people will try, but there are reality based technical limitations.