Both the U.S. White House and the Chinese government have firmly rejected calls for a slowdown in AI development, following remarks from Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic. The U.S. reiterated its commitment to advancing AI, stating, "We cannot fall behind China," while China labeled Amodei's claims as "hostile and unfounded" through state media.
On September 13, during the Irish Open golf tournament at Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, President Donald Trump dismissed warnings from the AI industry, including those from Amodei, as the work of "negative forces." He asserted, "We are ahead of China in AI and are the most advanced country in the world. We want to maintain this status because the winner in AI competition will ultimately be the victor." Trump added that while safety measures can be implemented, he believes that negative forces are unnecessarily raising concerns.
David Sachs, the White House AI and Crypto Czar, criticized claims that AI could lead to human extinction within a decade, calling them "merely feelings" rather than objective research. He suggested that such fears appear to be part of a coordinated marketing strategy by leading companies. Sachs warned against disguising motives for slowing down AI development as purely altruistic, stating that if products enable serious cyberattacks, companies could face significant liability.
China has also reacted strongly. The state-run Global Times criticized Amodei for mentioning China multiple times in his essay while advocating for AI regulations, arguing that he portrays China's legitimate AI development as a threat and exacerbates U.S.-China AI competition. Xiao Qian, deputy director of Tsinghua University's AI International Governance Research Institute, noted that Anthropic is facing competition from China's rapidly growing open-source AI models.
In South Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT continues to prioritize the development of a "proprietary AI foundation model" to match U.S. and Chinese frontier models. At a press conference, Vice Chairman Ha Jung-woo of the National AI Strategy Committee indicated that if the current team does not develop a frontier-level model comparable to the U.S., they may consider collaborating with major corporations.
In the defense sector, movements toward sovereign AI are also emerging. Team Naver has partnered with Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to jointly develop a defense-specific AI foundation model, while SK Telecom has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of National Defense to utilize a proprietary AI foundation model in defense applications. Additionally, the government is exploring the allocation of 5 trillion won in surplus tax revenue from semiconductors to support sovereign AI development.
Professor Choi Byung-ho of Korea University’s Human-Inspired AI Research Institute remarked, "In a situation where no one knows the end of the current AI competition, companies are arguing that maintaining the status quo is risky. What we can do is find answers on how to understand and control AI, which is why the importance of alignment is growing."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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