Key facts
- Anthropic's policy chief Sarah Heck stated the U.S. must lead the AI race for safety.
- Heck advocated for export controls on AI chips to China.
- She emphasized balancing current risks with increasing AI capabilities.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously called for a slowdown in frontier AI development.
- Rep. Greg Casar urged Anthropic to pause development of its most advanced AI models.
Sarah Heck, Anthropic's head of public policy, asserted on Wednesday that the United States must maintain its leading position in artificial intelligence development to ensure global safety, stating that "you can’t do safety from second place." Speaking at POLITICO's Decoded summit in Washington, Heck argued that the U.S. cannot effectively regulate AI safety if it falls behind China in the global technology race. Her comments supported the implementation of export controls on AI chips destined for China.
Heck defended Anthropic's historical focus on safety concerns and its engagement with lawmakers to establish new regulations for AI technology. She highlighted the increasing pace of AI capabilities, stating, "The capabilities are only increasing and increasing at a pace that is accelerating," and stressed the need to balance current risks.
This stance follows Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call on Saturday for a slowdown in the development of frontier AI models, a proposal that received endorsements from leaders at rival AI labs, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI. The call for a pause came shortly after Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning that AI companies are "gambling with our lives."
However, President Donald Trump criticized Amodei's proposal on Monday via Truth Social, accusing him of feigning innocence and rejecting the necessity for additional AI guardrails. Earlier at the summit, progressive Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas) mentioned meeting with Heck and urged Anthropic to pause the development of its most advanced AI models, clarifying that the proposed pause targets "the most dangerous kind of R&D."