China Isn't Buying Silicon Valley's AI Slowdown Call, Sees It as a Bad Deal
AlexTensor · x · 2026-09-16
Silicon Valley leaders have pivoted to urging US-China cooperation to slow the AI race, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's post "We Must Pace the Frontier" arguing global pacing requires China's involvement while democracies keep as large a lead as possible.
China's government and AI companies are deeply skeptical—not because they deny AI risks (China's AI safety community shares similar concerns), but because they see a bad deal: an Anthropic-led vision that would restrict and subjugate China first to maximize leverage, whereas China will only negotiate from equal footing.
Kevin Xu, founder of Interconnected Capital and former White House staffer, says the gulf lies between these two positions, not in risk perception.
Related event: Amodei's AI Slowdown Proposal Meets Skepticism from China and Researchers(4 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Alpha School investigation: 17 campuses on probation, Bill Ackman as shadow lead, Holmes involved — benjaminjriley · 2026-11-02
- Google's chief economist: AI will transform more jobs than it kills — gains come from redesigning workflows — danielrock · 2026-11-02
- Daniel Lemire: AI is exploding demand for boring compute, server CPUs to double — lemire · 2026-11-02
- Alignment researcher: the word "aligned" implies consistencies that don't exist — davidmanheim · 2026-11-02
- By 2035, Indian Parents Will Ask How Many Agents You Manage, Not Your Salary — theteknosaur · 2026-11-02
- Under 5% of US consumers pay for AI, yet compute demand is already forcing usage cuts — NinaDSchick · 2026-11-02