BEIJING—China on Monday pushed back against calls from U.S. AI executives for companies to slow down development of cutting-edge technology.
“Fear-mongering, conflict and competition will only disrupt the global AI governance process,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Monday, according to an English translation posted by Reuters.
He answered a question about U.S. CEOs, including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who called for a slowdown in the industry, citing the dangers posed by rapid advances in technology.
Chen Yi, the new minister of China’s Ministry of State Security, published an article on Sunday calling for accelerating the construction of an AI security risk prevention and management system.
The minister said the field of AI has become “the main battleground of global technological competition and a new stage of strategic competition between great powers,” adding that there is a need for “sound and orderly” development of the technology.
Bridging the AI gap
AI stocks fell on Monday, with SoftBank, one of the biggest investors in OpenAI, dropping 10% in Japan.
“Not building the technology would only deprive humanity of its benefits and leave AI in the hands of dictatorial powers, but building it too quickly would be reckless,” Amodei said in an essay published Saturday.
But he noted that the pace will be limited by American companies’ lead against “authoritarian regimes, primarily the Chinese Communist Party.”
“If our pace slows any further, it will postpone Chinese Communist Party-related projects and create significant national security risks,” Amodei said.
US President Donald Trump also warned against the US losing its strategic advantage in the AI arms race. During a visit to Ireland, he rejected calls from AI executives, saying: “Look, we’re leading China in AI…and frankly, whoever wins in AI wins, so I want to keep it that way.”
At the BRICS bloc summit held in New Delhi over the weekend, President Xi Jinping said that China will take the lead in supporting the promotion of AI cooperation and development among developing countries.
The adoption of Chinese AI models is also gaining traction among Western companies as their capabilities improve.
