A Chinese researcher's opinions on a unified slowdown
A Chinese AI researcher notes that while safety and AI takeover concerns exist in China, they are not the primary focus for most Chinese AI companies. These companies are largely commercially driven and face intense competition, similar to those in the US. Consequently, they are unlikely to slow down AI progress for the sake of stock prices, suggesting a more nuanced situation than often portrayed regarding China's potential cooperation in a unified AI slowdown.
This account from a Chinese AI researcher offers a nuanced perspective, unlike common subreddit discussions, by highlighting the commercial drivers of Chinese AI companies.
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PublishedOffset at this time: UTC+0Sep 12, 2026, 19:07 UTC
IngestedOffset at this time: UTC+0Sep 13, 2026, 03:01 UTC
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- Sep 12, 2026, 19:07
- Ingested
- Sep 13, 2026, 03:01
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I have seen that this subreddit is arguing over whether China will cooperate or be forced to slow down AI progress if the US wants to do so. As an AI researcher working in China, I think this problem is a bit more nuanced than how it is usually framed here.
- Will China voluntarily slow down? No, not as long as China is still playing catch-up.
Researchers here do care about safety and the future of humanity, and the CPC is also concerned about an AI takeover. But this is not the first priority for most Chinese AI companies right now. Unlike what many people on this subreddit think, Chinese AI companies are mostly commercially driven rather than state-supported. There is intense competition among Chinese companies, just like in the US. For the sake of stock prices, they will not slow down.
- Will China be forced to slow down? It's possible, but not really likely.
Chinese companies rely on distillation due to a lack of compute and the pressure to keep up. But in recent months, in-house chips have been expanding rapidly, which allows companies like Moonshot to train models with trillions of parameters. From what I have seen, it's quite naive to believe that embargoes can stop Chinese engineering.
- Will China cooperate to slow down? This is the most interesting part.
At the company level, Chinese AI companies are definitely not going to cooperate with Anthropic, because everyone here absolutely hates and mistrusts Anthropic for dismissing and demonizing China. At the state level, I think it's quite likely that there will at least be some formal agreements between China and the US on pacing the frontier, as the CPC always wants to play a part in global governance, and it has far more control over AI companies than the US does. But I don't expect these agreements to actually slow things down much.
These are just some of my thoughts.