Anthropic CEO goes nuclear on Nvidia at Davos over China chip sales (www.techradar.com)

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei fiercely criticized Nvidia's approval to sell AI chips to China, likening it to "selling nuclear weapons to North Korea." This decision marks a significant shift as it ends a ban on U.S. sales of high-performance AI chips like Nvidia's H200 line to pre-approved Chinese customers. Amodei’s comments, surprising given Nvidia's substantial investment in Anthropic, underscore serious concerns within the AI/ML community regarding national security and the geopolitical implications of advanced AI technology. The discourse reflects a broader tension in the tech industry about controlling access to AI hardware, with some firms prioritizing market growth while others, like Anthropic, warn of the potential for enhanced military and strategic capabilities in authoritarian regimes. As Nvidia's chips form the backbone of AI model development, their sale to China could accelerate the country's AI advancements, potentially yielding transformative applications. Amodei’s bold analogy serves to elevate the urgency of the dialogue around the governance of AI technologies as nations scramble to secure their positions in an increasingly competitive landscape.