Chinese media and the Foreign Ministry in Beijing criticized a proposal calling for a slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence, arguing that such calls could target China’s progress in the field. The criticism came in response to remarks by Dario Amodei, CEO of the American company Anthropic, who called for slowing the pace of development to allow for a better understanding of and greater control over these systems.
Global Times, which is part of the media system affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, published a commentary accusing Amodei of seeking to establish technical barriers and regulatory monopolies that would obstruct the development of artificial intelligence in China. The commentary described his remarks as reminiscent of Cold War tactics, warning that excluding China from global innovation could increase the risks of trial and error and loss of control rather than reduce them.
China’s Foreign Ministry’s Position
Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Beijing that the development of artificial intelligence should serve the well-being of all humanity. He called on all parties to support the open and inclusive development of these technologies.
Guo added that stoking fears, polarization, and fierce competition would only harm global AI governance, stressing that this serves no party’s interests.
What Did Amodei Propose?
Amodei had published an article on the Anthropic website on September 12 in which he warned that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could outpace stakeholders’ ability to understand and control these systems. He proposed that AI companies cooperate to establish safety standards and create rules governing the speed at which models and systems are introduced to the market.
The proposal received public support from Elon Musk, who wrote on X that Dario was right, while Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said he agreed with the idea and would participate in taking a similar step regarding independent evaluation.
However, Amodei’s proposal to slow down was not separated in his article from the technological rivalry between the United States and China. He also called for tighter restrictions on the export of American chips to China and for preventing Chinese AI laboratories from using what he described as data theft through the technique of “distillation” from American companies’ models.
Why Does This Dispute Matter?
China’s response shows that the debate over AI safety is not taking place separately from the struggle for influence over chips and advanced models. In Amodei’s framing, the call to slow development appears connected to allowing more time for oversight and evaluation, but it simultaneously intersects with measures aimed at limiting China’s access to American components and technologies.
Amodei said in an interview with CBS News that the most difficult dilemma facing the proposal to slow down is the possibility that China and “other adversarial countries” may not adopt the same step. This leaves an open question: Can shared safety standards be built amid growing technological competition and trade restrictions, or will governance become another tool of competition between countries?