America’s AI Safety Dilemma and at the Trump-Xi Summit
Washington will not slow its own AI labs. Slowing China’s instead would look like safety policy, but it could cost the United States the one AI deal within reach this week.
On September 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," urging leading labs to deliberately slow how fast their AI models gain new capabilities. Shortly after, industry rivals endorsed his call. U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed AI catastrophe fears as a hoax, stating that China was the only one happy about the backlash against AI and data centers.
This exchange set the stage for Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Washington, the first state visit by a Chinese leader in over a decade.
The AI pacing debate poses a dilemma for the Trump administration. While public pressure mounts to slow down AI development, the government fears losing to China. A potential solution is to pressure China through tighter controls on chips, compute, and access to American AI models. However, this could undermine the summit's most promising outcome and alienate American supporters who prioritize staying in the AI race.
Amodei proposed coordinating with authoritarian governments like China, emphasizing the need to verify compliance while restricting access to powerful AI chips and semiconductors. The White House, however, prefers to maintain an aggressive AI pace without slowing down. Beijing seems to have anticipated this approach, warning against fearmongering and confrontation in global AI governance. Meanwhile, Chinese AI governance experts called for establishing "safe zones" for collaboration on AI safety standards.
Written by urgent.news from The Diplomat's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
