China has criticised what it described as narratives of threat, confrontation and “malicious competition” in the debate over artificial intelligence, arguing that such language could obstruct efforts to create global rules for the technology.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said all sides should instead work towards AI development that is open, inclusive and beneficial. His remarks came after calls from senior figures in the US AI industry for a slowdown in development and stronger safeguards, while preserving the United States’ position relative to China.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has urged a slowdown in AI progress that would not allow China to move ahead in the competition. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxson also said international coordination with China would be needed to prevent an AI race on a global scale.
Concerns have grown among some industry figures about the risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems. Coxson said last week that humanity could face grave danger if development continued at its current pace. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said safety and alignment techniques needed to advance more quickly than model capabilities, while Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said the technology should not be controlled by only a small number of entities.
Competing priorities
US President Donald Trump has taken a different position, stressing the need for the US to retain its lead over China. He said the country should develop AI faster than its rival, arguing that success in AI would be strategically decisive.
AI has become central to competition between the world’s two largest economies. The source says Chinese innovation has continued to expand despite US restrictions on exports of critical chips, supported by open-source technology and backing from Beijing. Many experts believe the US remains ahead, while Chinese companies seek the vast investment needed to compete with American AI firms.
Chinese officials have also publicly acknowledged potential dangers from the technology. State security minister Chen Yixin wrote that China should balance development with security, improve laws and ethical guidance, and strengthen risk prevention to protect public and national-security interests. He also warned that foreign intelligence services could use AI and called for international cooperation.
Prospects for cooperation
Analysts say shared concerns do not necessarily make a US-China agreement likely. Chang Jun Yan of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said a deal to regulate AI development was “next to impossible,” because the issue is closely linked to both countries’ core national-security interests.
Others see possible technical reasons for cooperation. Kenton Thibaut of the Atlantic Council said there were signs that Washington and Beijing recognised common frontier risks. She argued that Chinese developers could benefit from understanding how their models are deployed outside China and identifying weaknesses.
China established the World AI Cooperation Organisation in July, seeking to influence global AI governance. At the Brics summit in India on Sunday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping proposed an open-source AI community. The South China Morning Post reported that AI could be included in discussions as Trump prepares to host Xi at the White House next week, and may also feature in planned talks between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng.
Source: BBC News
