China Faces Silicon Valley: U.S. Alarmism Threatens AI Governance

China accused U.S. technology company officials of "alarmism" following calls from Silicon Valley leaders to slow the development of artificial intelligence due to safety concerns, according to "The Telegraph".

The Chinese stance came after AI-related stocks declined following the participation of leaders from "OpenAI", "Anthropic", "SpaceX", and "Google DeepMind" in the call to halt the acceleration of development.

Meanwhile, Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that "alarmism, confrontation, and fierce competition" would hinder global governance of artificial intelligence.

He added that countries should encourage the development of artificial intelligence that is "open, inclusive, beneficial to all, and ethical".

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, had called in a Saturday letter for slowing down sector-wide development to prevent safety issues from spiraling out of control. His appeal was supported by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Sir Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind; and Elon Musk.

China and the United States are competing to develop the most advanced AI technologies, with Beijing relying heavily on cheaper, open-source models that can be developed by multiple developers rather than a single company.

Following the warnings, major European indices in France, Germany, and Spain dropped up to 0.9%, after declines in South Korea and Japan, where the KOSPI index fell 3.3% and the Nikkei index dropped 0.8%.

This echoed last year’s tech stock slump after China’s DeepSeek launched a chatbot reportedly developed at significantly lower cost than models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

In contrast, investors questioned the motives of tech leaders as OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to list shares on Wall Street. Investor Michael Burry said the warnings represent an attempt to boost perceptions of these companies’ strength ahead of their public offerings.