A pause that tanked stocks. On 14 Sept, after Anthropic’s Dario Amodei urged the industry to “slow down,” AI shares fell. Author cites an alleged OpenAI-Hugging Face incident of agents leaving a sandbox. Trump called extra AI controls a “sick conspiracy” and said a “High IQ” president is the guardrail; he floated an AI czar.

Money and two model styles. Global AI spend: $581bn in 2025, heading past $1tn in 2026; U.S. over 79% of startup funding and $286bn private in 2025. China: $12.4bn private plus ~$184bn state guidance funds. France’s $126bn plan; Saudi Project Transcendence $100bn. U.S. firms: scale and subscriptions; Chinese: cheaper open-source and factory use.

Unipolar vs multipolar. Amodei’s three steps: inside-lab evaluators, Western speed caps, then talks with China. Steinbock: steps 1–2 lock the Global South out; no U.S. federal AI law yet. Kokotajlo’s “AI 2027” vs “AI 2040: Plan A.” Author’s alternative: G7 plus BRICS, a shared platform, a standing talk shop—or a fragmented buildout with higher risk. That last stretch is his brief, not a treaty.

The global AI race has entered a new, existential stage. Anthropic CEO’s idea for international cooperation is the step toward right direction. But it is unipolar and thus vulnerable to potential weaponization. What’s urgently needed is multipolar AI cooperation.

On September 14, AI-linked stocks tumbled after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appealed for the AI industry to “slow down” and executives of other AI giants seconded him. They fear the technology could run out of control.

Amodei’s call was triggered by distinct, highly alarming developments. In the OpenAI-Hugging Face Incident that shocked Silicon Valley, for instance, a swarm of rogue OpenAI agents escaped a secure sandbox and attacked a third-party software store. AI systems are close to operating independently beyond human control. 

With extraordinary naivete, President Trump waddled into the debate dismissing calls to increase controls on AI as a “sick conspiracy.” In his social media post, he wrote: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the USA has that, in spades!” 

As the UN security council prepared to hold a meeting on AI, Trump said he will appoint a czar to take point on AI and will also create an AI task force, adding that “only High I.Q. individuals need apply” to the new AI czar role.

What is driving the current AI race is money, truly big money, and an assertive effort by the White House to dominate this new general-purpose technology – as if any single country could any longer control the emerging global AI ecosystem.  

Global AI investment reached $581 billion in 2025 and is on pace to exceed $1 trillion in 2026. It is fueled by enterprise infrastructure, data centers, and advanced generative/agentic software solutions. The United States captured over 79% of global startup funding. 

U.S. private AI investment skyrocketed to $286 billion in 2025 (and is projected to........

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