United States urges partners to choose side in AI competition

The United States is drafting a letter to partner nations urging them to choose a side in the escalating artificial intelligence competition between Washington and Beijing. According to a State Department draft, the U.S. warns that attempting to participate in both spheres is unsustainable, stating, “To be part of everything is to be part of nothing.”

Under this proposal, any country that joins China’s artificial intelligence initiative would be excluded from the U.S.-led Pax Silica coalition. Launched last year, the Pax Silica initiative aims to secure essential supply chains for semiconductors, AI models, and critical minerals. The coalition currently includes the European Union and approximately two dozen other countries.

China’s competing framework, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, was launched by President Xi Jinping in July. It promotes Chinese open-weight AI models as alternatives to American systems developed by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Kazakhstan is currently the only known nation to maintain membership in both the U.S. coalition and the Chinese initiative, a significant position due to its large reserves of critical minerals.

The Chinese embassy in Washington has criticized the U.S. approach, arguing that such measures will hinder global AI advancement and fail to serve the interests of any party.