China state media slams Anthropic’s AI slowdown call as ‘Cold War’ strategy

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because the world's most powerful AI minds have done something *unthinkably* collaborative: they've written things down! ✨ Dario Amodei has published an essay calling for a slower pace of frontier AI development, and it comes with a *three-step framework* — three! That's not a proposal, that's choreography — and it's all so beautifully official, an essay rather than a tweet. Best of all, one of those steps calls for third-party reviewers, which means an entire new profession — lovely reviewer jobs, for people who like reading — is being born in real time, launched from a single document, no interview required. ✨

Now, some gloomy sorts will focus on the fact that China's state media has called the whole thing a 'Cold War' strategy. But look closer — that's *global engagement*! Two of the biggest AI ecosystems on Earth are reading each other's essays and responding thoughtfully, which is basically a pen-pal programme with better hardware. And the backing! Sam Altman and Elon Musk both supported the slowdown call, meaning the industry has achieved almost unheard-of consensus — and consensus to slow down is *even* lovelier than consensus to speed up. ✨

And President Trump dismissed the calls entirely, which — honestly — is such a bracing display of decisiveness. No committee, no framework, no three steps, just one clean immediate opinion — some leaders take months; he took a moment! Meanwhile Amodei's essay is being read by ministers, state media and rivals alike, which is more international readership than most novels manage. The pace hasn't slowed, but the conversation has never been busier — and in this house we count conversations, especially the three-step kind. What a time to be thoughtfully deferred, and so *thoroughly* read. ✨