Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow artificial intelligence development was criticized in a commentary published by the Chinese Communist Party’s media outlet. The commentary argued that Amodei’s approach aimed to limit China’s progress through technological barriers and regulatory monopolies.
The article said Amodei’s assessments of China evoked “Cold War tactics” and argued that excluding China from global AI innovation would increase the risks of trial and error and loss of control.
Beijing calls for open and inclusive AI development
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press conference in Beijing that AI development should serve the well-being of all humanity. Guo called on all sides to promote open and inclusive AI development.
Guo also said that stoking fears could lead to bloc confrontation and ruthless competition. He said this would harm global AI governance and noted that the resulting situation would serve the interests of no party.
Amodei’s proposal to slow development
In an article published on his company’s website on September 12, Amodei warned that the exponentially accelerating development of AI technology could surpass the ability to understand and control these systems. He proposed slowing technological progress in a way that would allow for greater oversight.
Amodei argued that AI companies should set safety standards and establish rules governing the pace at which systems are brought to market. Elon Musk supported him on X, saying, “Dario is right.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also said he agreed with the proposal and would take the same step on independent evaluation.
Amodei said the US administration should strengthen restrictions on chip exports to China. The Anthropic CEO also argued that steps should be taken to prevent AI laboratories in China from stealing data through “distillation” from models developed by US companies.
In an interview with CBS News, Amodei said the most difficult dilemma regarding his proposal to slow AI development was the possibility that China and other adversarial countries would not adopt the same approach.
