Anthropic CEO: Doesn't see DeepSeek as a rival, but export controls are critical

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a blog post Wednesday that he doesn't "see China's DeepSeek as a rival," but that he believes export controls are more important than ever when it comes to artificial intelligence, CNBC reports. On Monday, U.S. lawmakers called for action to curb the growth of the Chinese tech startup, with some calling DeepSeek a "serious threat." U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick hinted at DeepSeek stealing U.S. technology during a hearing on Wednesday. David Sacks, the new White House expert on artificial intelligence and encryption, posted on X that DeepSeek R1 shows that "President Trump was right to rescind" President Biden's executive order.Amodei writes that DeepSeek's rise has made controls on China's chip exports even more important than they were a week ago. The model was created despite a series of controls put in place by the Biden administration to limit the sale of certain advanced chips to China that could enhance military capabilities. "It needs to be clear that this is not a way to avoid competition between the United States and China," Amodei wrote. "At the end of the day, if we want to win, U.S. AI companies must have better models than China's, but we shouldn't cede our technological advantage to China when we don't have to." (Source: Whiplash)