{
  "id": 5428342,
  "title": "US urged to consider military strikes to stop China achieving AGI first",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/us-urged-to-consider-military-strikes-to-stop-china-achieving-agi-5428342",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T22:13:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/us/article/3366284/us-urged-consider-military-strikes-stop-china-achieving-agi-first"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A former White House official is urging the United States to consider extreme measures to prevent China from achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) first. This includes potential state-backed espionage and military strikes on Chinese data centers crucial for AGI development. Jacob Stokes, deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), made the case at an online event. He suggested that various US agencies, including the Department of Defense and National Security Agency, should start assessing the intelligence needed to justify such actions.\n\nThe report, titled \"Superpowers and AGI,\" explores the implications of AGI on US-China geopolitical competition. Although the US currently leads in frontier AI models, China could make a surprising technological breakthrough, putting it ahead in achieving AGI first. If this happens, the US government should contemplate extreme actions, such as military strikes on Chinese data centers, according to Stokes. He acknowledged the risk of these strikes potentially escalating into a general war between the two nuclear-armed powers. Another option mentioned is stealing or reverse engineering China's AGI technology, which could be justified legally and normatively due to China's alleged history of stealing US intellectual property. However, the US government lacks the necessary espionage capabilities for gathering technological secrets. The talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for later this month, aim to discuss AI governance as the technology grows in significance, posing risks to national and global security. The best-case scenario for these talks is that they are constructive, rather than leading to breakthroughs on key governance issues.",
  "summary": "The United States should start preparing for scenarios where extreme measures must be taken to stop China from achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to a former White House official, including state-backed espionage and military strikes on Chinese data centres. Jacob Stokes, deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS),…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
        "title": "US urged to consider military strikes to stop China achieving AGI first",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/us-urged-to-consider-military-strikes-to-stop-china-achieving-agi",
        "published": "2026-09-03T22:13:33.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}