China Paper Calls Anthropic CEO's AI Slowdown Push a 'Cold War Playbook'
China's Global Times hit back at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow frontier AI, calling it a hypocritical Cold War tactic aimed at containing China.
A state-backed Chinese newspaper has sharply criticised an essay by Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei that urged a slower, more controlled pace for frontier AI development, describing the proposal as a "Cold War playbook" directed at China.
In an editorial, the Global Times tabloid argued that while the essay presents itself as a measured appeal to manage safety risks, its real purpose is to constrain China's progress in artificial intelligence through technology barriers and regulatory monopolies. The paper said the approach seeks to preserve Washington's dominance in cutting-edge technology and keep China out of global AI governance.
It labelled the emerging "silent AI Cold War" as hypocritical and short-sighted, warning that shutting China out of global AI innovation would raise trial-and-error costs and heighten the risk that AI systems slip beyond human control.
Amodei's essay, published on Saturday, laid out a framework for pacing the development of frontier model capabilities so that more time is available to address mounting safety concerns. It also called on the United States to tighten chip export controls on China and to crack down on what it described as model distillation by Chinese AI laboratories. The piece drew endorsements from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, Amodei said the hardest dilemma posed by his proposal was the prospect that China and other adversarial nations might decline to follow suit.
The exchange comes amid heightened attention to AI risk in Washington. US lawmakers have pressed for new rules to govern AI systems after two Anthropic researchers warned that fast-advancing AI could lead to human extinction in the not-too-distant future.
President Donald Trump, however, dismissed calls to slow AI development on Sunday, saying "very negative forces" were exaggerating the dangers. He stressed that the United States leads China in AI and that he intends to keep it that way, adding that whoever wins AI wins.
Officials from the United States and China are planning to discuss frontier AI safety risks in mid-September, and the subject could come up during a summit between Trump and President Xi Jinping on September 24.