China calls Anthropic CEO's AI warnings "fearmongering"

What happened: China's Foreign Ministry hit back on Monday 14 September at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, after his 12 September essay "We Must Pace the Frontier" argued for keeping US chip export restrictions on China in place.

The details: Amodei's essay also proposed banning "distillation", where Chinese labs train on outputs from US models, and warned that "a Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world."

In their words: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said "Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance -- which serves no one's interest." He called for parties to work together on AI.

The context: State-run Global Times had already branded the essay "packed with containment provisions targeting China" and "in essence, a 'Cold War playbook' for the AI sector."

The catch: The row follows a joint FBI, NSA and CISA advisory accusing Chinese AI developers of "aggressive, malicious" efforts to distil capabilities from Claude and GPT. China's Commerce Ministry called those claims groundless. Anthropic's own 10 September threat report named seven Chinese labs over fraudulent accounts.

Why it matters: The dispute sharpens tension between Washington and Beijing over AI just as both governments weigh export controls, surveillance of rival labs and claims of misuse.

What's next: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping were expected to discuss AI governance at a meeting on 24 September. Trump has separately criticised Amodei's calls for AI guardrails.

Read more from 1News and The Korea Times.