Washington’s answer
President Donald Trump on Monday rejected calls to slow AI development, writing on Truth Social that “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT”, NBC News reported.
Trump said there was “a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers”, called AI “the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History” and wrote that “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity…is a HOAX”. He singled out Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, saying he was “now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’”, Yahoo News reported, and argued that the government already has enough criminal and regulatory authority over AI companies. The post ended: “Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!”, according to the Deseret News.
What Amodei asked for
In an essay published on Saturday, Amodei argued that AI companies should deliberately slow the rate at which their models gain capability. Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed the idea. The essay also warned that “a Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world” and called for continued restrictions on selling advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to China, along with a crackdown on smuggling and on remote access to data centres abroad, The Next Web reported.
Beijing’s answer
China’s foreign ministry responded the same day. “Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance which serves no one’s interest,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press conference, NPR reported.
The commerce ministry called the essay “further proof that the US is pursuing technological hegemony in AI”, according to the Global Times as cited by The Next Web. It also dismissed US accusations about model distillation as baseless, noting the technique is widely used across the industry, the Associated Press reported.
Chen Yixin, head of the Ministry of State Security, wrote in an essay on Sunday that advanced AI in hostile hands threatens China’s political, institutional and ideological security, including critical infrastructure, NPR reported. A Global Times commentary described the plan as a “Cold War script”.
One plan, two refusals
Amodei’s proposal has two halves: labs pace themselves, and democracies keep China behind on chips. On Monday, Trump rejected the first and Beijing the second. As Amodei framed it, the plan depends on both.
The politics in Washington are not settled either. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has asked for a briefing with administration officials, and an NBC News poll found that 70% of Americans are more worried than excited about AI, while 69% oppose data centres in their communities.
What to watch
Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to discuss AI governance, among other topics, at a meeting planned for 24 September. Whether chip controls or any shared safety commitments appear in its readout will show how far either side’s refusal goes.
