China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back at a call from the head of Anthropic for the United States to curb China’s artificial intelligence capabilities. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in a lengthy essay that a Chinese lead in artificial intelligence would pose grave dangers for the United States and the world, advocating for ongoing restrictions on sales of cutting-edge AI chips and equipment to maintain a Western edge. Responding to the essay, Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated during a regular press conference that all parties should work together on artificial intelligence. Fearmongering, confrontation, and vicious competition will only disrupt global AI governance, serving no one’s interest, Guo added. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed requests for his administration to intervene and slow down domestic artificial intelligence development, maintaining that the U.S. currently leads China and that whoever wins artificial intelligence wins. President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are scheduled to discuss topics including AI governance during an upcoming meeting. Amodei also predicted that advanced AI agents could take over the internet within months unless researchers cooperate to slow advancement, noting that pacing requires cooperation with China given its advanced capabilities. Chinese companies have designed powerful models that are frequently cheaper to use than American alternatives, while maintaining comparable performance. Chinese state media outlet Global Times dismissed Amodei’s essay as a veiled Cold War playbook designed to contain Beijing’s technological progress under the guise of safety. The exchange follows a recent joint cybersecurity advisory from the FBI, NSA, and CISA accusing Chinese developers of aggressively extracting capabilities from advanced U.S. models. China’s Commerce Ministry dismissed those accusations as groundless, arguing that distillation techniques are widely used across the industry and that Washington is pursuing a monopoly.
Source: npr.org
