China's State Media Slams Anthropic CEO's AI Slowdown Call as a "Cold War" Ploy

BEIJING — China's state-backed Global Times has pushed back sharply against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's recent call to slow the pace of AI development, characterizing it not as a safety-driven proposal but as a strategic move to contain China's technological rise. In an essay published Saturday, Amodei laid out a framework for pacing the advancement of frontier AI models to give society more time to manage safety risks. The proposal quickly drew public support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Global Times Calls Out China-Related Proposals Beyond the safety framing, Amodei also called for tighter U.S. chip export controls targeting China and pushed for a crackdown on what he described as model distillation practices by Chinese AI labs. In a separate interview with CBS News on Sunday, he acknowledged that the biggest challenge to his slowdown proposal would be if China and other rival nations declined to follow suit. The Global Times editorial argued that these elements reveal the essay's underlying purpose: using technological restrictions and regulatory control to limit China's AI progress while preserving U.S. dominance over advanced technology and steering global AI governance away from Chinese involvement. The publication described the approach as a "silent AI Cold War," calling it both hypocritical and short-sighted. It further argued that sidelining China from global AI development would raise the costs and risks tied to losing control over AI systems worldwide. Washington's Response Diverges Sharply The criticism comes as U.S. lawmakers weigh new AI oversight rules, spurred in part by warnings from two Anthropic researchers who cautioned that unchecked AI progress could eventually pose an existential threat to humanity. President Trump, however, dismissed calls to slow AI development on Sunday, suggesting that the warnings were being amplified by what he called "very negative forces." He emphasized that the U.S. currently leads China in AI capability and framed continued dominance in the field as a national priority. Diplomatic Talks on the Horizon Despite the public friction, the U.S. and China are reportedly preparing to hold talks on frontier AI safety risks in mid-September. The topic may also surface during a planned summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24.