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Warnings from researchers at leading US artificial intelligence developer Anthropic that increasingly powerful models could escape human control and even lead to the extinction of the human race, have drawn attention in China, where policymakers have been preparing for some of the same risks.
The US and China are the two major driving forces of frontier AI development and the technology’s global adoption. Both superpowers have been increasingly at loggerheads over each other’s AI policies and industry practices, with these issues slated to feature prominently in bilateral talks later this month.
Despite the race to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, regulatory frameworks and public statements from Beijing underscore how Chinese authorities regard the possibility of advanced AI escaping effective human oversight as serious enough to plan for.
China’s state security minister Chen Yixin wrote in a government outlet on Sunday that advanced US models such as Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber could pose serious risks to China’s critical information infrastructure, and called for a comprehensive strengthening of AI security.
