Beijing Hits Back at Anthropic CEO’s Call to Curb China’s AI Development

China's intelligence chief, Chen Yixin, has provided insight into what Beijing perceives as the most significant risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI). In a recent article published in China Cyberspace, a journal managed by the country's internet regulator, Chen outlined six major AI risks that could impact the nation's security and development.

The first risk identified by Chen is regime security. He warned that malicious actors could exploit generative AI technologies, such as deepfake audio and video, AI-generated images and text, and intelligent online armies, to spread political rumors at a low cost and in large quantities. These tools can disseminate harmful information, incite antagonistic emotions, and wage a war of public opinion and cognitive warfare, directly threatening China's political, institutional, and ideological security.

Chen also highlighted five other major AI risks. These include dangers to China's critical infrastructure, as cyberattacks can be executed with extreme efficiency due to the power of models like Mythos. There is also the risk of large-scale data leaks, which could result in the acquisition of critical national data, trade secrets, or citizens' personal information by Chinese AI users and foreign intelligence agencies.

Chen further pointed out an imbalance in technological development that could arise from monopolies and closed technological systems, as countries may exploit AI's power and fragment supply chains in the name of national security.

Another risk identified by Chen is challenges to social governance, which could lead to disruptions in public order. He also mentioned fundamental shifts in warfare, as AI-powered precision targeting would provide adversaries with a significant advantage on the battlefield. Chen further emphasized the need for strong developmental guidelines for AI, advocating for more government control of AI development.

This would involve accelerating the construction of a security risk prevention and control system, promoting the healthy and orderly development of AI through high-efficiency governance, and ensuring that AI is developed with the wellbeing of all humanity as its guiding principle.

Chen's comments come as Chinese leader Xi Jinping advocates for AI progress at the BRICS summit in New Delhi. Xi called for a people-centered approach, urging the development of AI for the positive and for good, and working towards a faster consensus-based global AI governance framework. The debate over the potential AI apocalypse has intensified in the US, with tech executives like Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk calling for a slowdown in the pace of frontier AI development.

These concerns emerged after several of their employees warned that unchecked development could lead to the destruction of most of humanity.