Deutsche Welle reported today (August 16): "The U.S. government is preparing to send letters to dozens of countries, demanding they must choose sides in the artificial intelligence competition with China. The U.S. warns that nations which also join Beijing’s proposed AI framework will be excluded from the U.S.-led artificial intelligence alliance 'Pax Silica.' A U.S. official told Reuters that the State Department drafted this letter to clearly convey the message: 'You can’t have your cake and eat it too.' Reuters noted that by pressuring countries to take sides, the United States aims to cut off China’s access to resources in the race to develop cutting-edge AI, while pushing allies and partners to collaborate on joint projects and implement export controls—ultimately reducing dependency on rivals in critical minerals, AI models, and semiconductor chips."

Commentary: The U.S. is forcing countries to choose between China and the U.S. in the AI competition, using exclusion from the 'Pax Silica' alliance as leverage. Fundamentally, this reflects an attempt to politicize AI technological rivalry, deliberately constructing an exclusive tech bloc. It seeks to block China’s access to chips, key minerals, and international technical cooperation, isolate China’s AI development strategy, hinder its participation in shaping global AI rules, limit its expansion of overseas AI partnerships, and curb China’s technological rise—all to preserve America’s technological hegemony. However, most countries are unwilling to be forced into such a binary choice. They wish to benefit from high-end U.S. technology cooperation without losing access to China’s vast market and AI collaboration opportunities. This black-and-white coercion is likely to provoke resistance among allies. Deeper still, such actions risk driving a fragmentation of the global AI supply chain and technical standards, leading to parallel, competing technological ecosystems. This will result in massive redundant R&D investments, significantly increasing the cost for countries developing AI, ultimately undermining the global innovation and advancement of artificial intelligence.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1873687119677833/

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