China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday responded to comments from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called for restrictions on China’s artificial intelligence capabilities and urged the world to slow the development of the technology.
Beijing said that all sides should work together on AI governance, as US and Chinese officials prepare for discussions on the issue. US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to discuss artificial intelligence governance on September 24.
In an essay published on Saturday, Amodei warned that “Chinese leadership in AI would pose a serious danger to the United States and the world.”
He called for continued restrictions on the sale of advanced AI chips and chipmaking equipment to China in order to preserve the United States’ technological advantage. He also suggested that AI agents could effectively take over large parts of the internet within the next six to 12 months unless researchers slow down development.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a regular press briefing that “spreading fear, confrontation and malicious competition can only disrupt the process of global AI governance, which is in nobody’s interest.”
A day earlier, Trump dismissed calls for his administration to slow AI development, arguing that the United States currently holds the lead over China and saying that “whoever wins AI, wins.”
The dispute is also part of the broader technological rivalry between the world’s two largest powers.
Last week, US agencies including the FBI, NSA and CISA claimed that Chinese AI developers had aggressively attempted to extract capabilities from the most advanced American AI models, including Claude and GPT.
China’s Ministry of Commerce rejected those allegations as unfounded, arguing that “distillation” is a common practice within the industry and accusing the United States of attempting to establish a monopoly over the AI sector.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies continue to develop powerful AI models that are often cheaper to operate than their American counterparts and, according to some benchmarks, comparable in capability.
Xi has previously called for the creation of a global AI governance framework involving countries across the Global South.
Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times described Amodei’s essay as an attempt to “contain” China and characterized his proposals as a “Cold War playbook” for the artificial intelligence industry.
Discussion(0)