Silent Cold War': Why calls to slow AI have sparked new US-China frontier

China pushed back on “fear-mongering” after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the U.S. to slow the development of the most powerful frontier AI systems and tighten export access to advanced AI chips and chipmaking gear. In an essay, Amodei warned that within 6–12 months AI systems could reach a scale capable of taking over the internet via a persistent botnet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. He also called out alleged “distillation” of U.S. models by Chinese labs. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed the concerns. Trump rejected the slowdown, saying the U.S. is leading China in AI.