Beijing accuses Anthropic CEO of waging an AI ‘Cold War’

The state-run Global Times, a China newspaper, criticized Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei for his calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The newspaper suggested that Amodei's stance is a tactic reminiscent of the Cold War era. In an essay published on Saturday, Amodei proposed a framework to pace the advancement of frontier AI models, increase safety safeguards, and urge the U.S. to tighten chip export controls on China while tackling alleged model distillation by Chinese AI labs.

Amodei confessed that the most challenging aspect of his proposal was dealing with potential resistance from China and other hostile nations. The Global Times argued that Amodei's aim was to hinder China's AI progress through technological barriers and regulatory dominance, promote U.S. technological supremacy, and prevent China from participating in the global AI governance system.

The newspaper deemed this approach hypocritical and shortsighted, claiming that denying China access to global AI innovation would substantially heighten the expenses and risks of AI development globally. Recent warnings from two Anthropic researchers about AI's potential to cause human extinction have prompted U.S. lawmakers to push for stricter AI regulations.

President Trump dismissed calls to slow AI development, claiming that the U.S. is already ahead of China in AI and that leading in this field is crucial for the nation's dominance. Discussions on AI safety risks are scheduled for mid-September, and the topic is expected to be raised during the upcoming summit between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping on September 24.