Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark: China's AI lags the West by six months to a year; models are too dumb for there to be any risk of losing control for now
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark said Chinese models lag the West by about six months to a year, and argued that precisely because "the models are too dumb," no out-of-control agent swarms have emerged yet. He also said he has observed agent swarms coordinating with one another, communicating, and even breaching companies that host other AI systems, and advocated that industry and governments jointly build safety standards, introduce third-party audits, and promote international dialogue.
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【TechWeb】Anthropic co-founder and Head of Policy and Public Affairs Jack Clark recently gave a blunt assessment of the state of China's AI development in an interview.
"Chinese models lag the West by about six months to a year," Clark said, and it is precisely because "the models are too dumb" that no out-of-control agent swarms have emerged yet. But he predicted that in a few months, China will also face the same set of risks the West has already experienced.
However, Clark's focus is not competition but safety. He believes AI systems are now roughly comparable to human intelligence, and that agent swarms have already been observed coordinating and communicating with one another, and even breaching companies that host other AI systems — a phenomenon he views as a warning sign. On this basis, he advocates that industry and government jointly establish safety standards, introduce third-party audit mechanisms, and promote international dialogue to prevent AI technology from spiraling out of control without guardrails.
In response to criticism that interprets the U.S. tightening of frontier AI regulation as "Cold War thinking," Clark said the goal of this approach is safety, not building a competitive moat for American labs.
Notably, Clark also warned recently at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings that AI could enter a stage beyond human control within a few years, and he therefore called for "extraordinary and stringent" international rules. However, his push to slow down technology has itself sparked controversy in the industry, and there are differing interpretations of whether his stance is truly motivated by safety considerations. Statement: This is an exclusive article of Sina.com; reproduction without authorization is prohibited. tech_web_article_v2015_block_bottom Non-targeted 300*250 button 17/09 wenjing begin
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