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Current Affairs

Anthropic, China and why Pax Silica architect thinks the US can keep the AI lead

The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In this…

By Samantha Johnson / July 16, 2026

The struggle between the US and China over who will lead in artificial intelligence is one of the defining competitions of our time. In this first part of our exclusive interview with a key player defining Washington’s policy on AI, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs Jacob Helberg discusses the ban on foreign access to Anthropic models and how the US can maintain its edge.

The head of the US administration’s global initiative to exclude China from artificial intelligence supply chains has defended Washington’s sudden restrictions on foreign access to Anthropic’s cutting-edge models, saying they were meant to safeguard the US and its allies.

“We do not want cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure or the critical infrastructure of our allies,” Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview.

Helberg, who leads Washington’s Pax Silica initiative – which also counts 22 other nations, plus the European Union, as signatories – said the administration had assessed how advanced AI models could be released safely.

“We undertook a process to make sure that we can have a sensible approach to releasing that technology in a way that is safe and secure for our critical infrastructure and our financial sector,” he said.

In early June, the Department of Commerce barred foreign nationals from using Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models on unspecified national security grounds. Anthropic complied with the order, though access was restored three weeks later.

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