The US government should ​not block Chinese artificial intelligence in an attempt to gain the upper hand in the race to develop the groundbreaking technology, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has told the Financial Times.

Zuckerberg warned that a US ban on Chinese ​AI models would not be “an effective solution” and suggested that US companies should instead “systematically” identify bottlenecks and roadblocks in order to better compete with Chinese AI firms.

His comments in an interview with the FT published Wednesday come as an intense debate rages in Washington over how the US should regulate the fast-developing technology and respond to increasingly sophisticated Chinese competition.

Some senior Trump administration officials have claimed there is evidence that China’s Moonshot AI covertly used US rivals to train its latest model Kimi K3. Moonshot has denied the allegations.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned last week that “sanctions” could be considered if Chinese labs “cross the line into IP theft.”