Pacing problem: can AI fears overcome US-China race dynamics and force a slowdown?

When the presidents of the United States and China meet in Washington, the world will be watching to see whether their two countries can make good on their agreement to work towards “constructive strategic stability”. In the sixth part of a series, Chong Ming Lee and Vincent Chow examine what’s behind the call for “pacing” by American AI giants – effectively a slowdown in development – and how the phenomenon is being viewed in China.

After years of rapid development, leading US AI executives are proposing what would have been unthinkable even a year earlier: that it may be time to slow down.

In recent weeks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI chief Sam Altman and SpaceXAI founder Elon Musk have all called for “pacing” the development of frontier artificial intelligence over purported fears that its capabilities were advancing faster than the safeguards designed to control them.

These public statements come ahead of a highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday, after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng met in New York City on the weekend to discuss AI safety.