The startling breakthrough moment in artificial intelligence and the commensurate concentration of power into the hands of a few tech giants may lead to an intensification of geopolitical competition. China is positioned to play a major constructive role for the well-being of humanity.
In April, the American artificial intelligence company Anthropic publicly disclosed the existence of Claude Mythos, a large language model that demonstrated outstanding capabilities in programming, reasoning and cybersecurity, including the ability to independently identify and exploit software vulnerabilities.
Anthropic said that it would not release the model broadly to the public, owing to concerns that it could be misused. This was the first official public disclosure of Mythos in what has been framed as a “watershed moment” in AI-enabled cybersecurity risk.
The announcement attracted widespread attention both in the United States and internationally. The Economist described it as the “Mythos Moment” in AI—meaning a historic turning point in which AI had surpassed a critical threshold, with technological power becoming highly concentrated in a few hands, global regulatory systems falling behind and geopolitical tech competition entering a far more intense stage.
The most immediate impact of the Mythos Moment is the solidification of global AI technological hegemony and the comprehensive escalation of technological containment. Cutting-edge large models have achieved a generational leap in autonomous reasoning, decision-making and vulnerability discovery. Their capabilities are powerful enough to penetrate critical infrastructure sectors such as finance, energy, telecommunications and national defense, enabling technological leaders to wield a near-monopolistic form of digital sovereignty.
Anthropic decided to grant access to the model only to a select group of trusted users, including the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, and its partners such as Amazon, Apple, and Google. In essence, this amounts to the creation of an exclusive AI club, excluding most countries from the frontier tech ecosystem. It reflects an attempt to preserve technological leadership through closed monopolization and to secure an advantageous competitive position.
For China, this moment underscores with even greater urgency the strategic importance of achieving independent and controllable technological capabilities. It is not merely a question of development strategy but a matter of safeguarding fundamental national interests. Should China face comprehensive blockades and isolation in areas such as advanced AI models, computing resources and technical standards, its national security in critical sectors, including artificial intelligence and the digital domain, would face grave threats.
The Mythos Moment also reflects the growing disconnect between the rapid iteration of AI technologies and national governance systems. In recent years, the United States has largely embraced a laissez-faire, capital-first approach to AI development, allowing a small number of technology companies—and in some cases even individuals—to control the direction of technological research and to determine the scope and conditions of its application. This has resulted in a high concentration of power in key emerging technological fields.
The emergence of the Mythos Moment has already had repercussions within the country. More than 70 percent of the American public reportedly worry that the unchecked development of artificial intelligence could lead to social problems such as job displacement, while the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants has fueled widespread calls for stronger government regulation.
For China, the Mythos Moment represents a critical window of opportunity to restructure its AI governance system and demonstrate the advantages of its institutional framework. It possesses the institutional strength to mobilize resources for major undertakings, along with ultra large-scale application scenarios, and it has a well-developed foundation for digital governance. This gives it the capacity to move beyond the Western path of “development first, governance later” or “monopoly first, regulation afterward” and instead to establish a distinctly Chinese model of AI governance that balances development and security, advances innovation and regulation in tandem and reconciles efficiency with fairness.
Such a governance model may not only avoid the inherent vulnerabilities of Western governance approaches but also provide a Chinese solution for global AI governance, enabling the country to seize the initiative in institutional competition in the age of AI.
The Mythos Moment is likely to further intensify global technological rivalry and deepen the geopolitical dimension of technological competition and cooperation. The West has framed competition in artificial intelligence as a form of bloc confrontation, seeking to build exclusive alliances through technological nationalism, to weaponize and instrumentalize AI technologies and to divide the global technological system into mutually antagonistic, closed blocs.
Such zero-sum thinking will not only hinder the global flow of technological innovation but will also aggravate disorder in global governance, turning artificial intelligence from a shared asset of humanity into a tool of geopolitical rivalry that ultimately endangers the common security of all mankind. In this sense, the Mythos Moment has unbalanced the global technological landscape and exposed the inherent flaws of Western technological hegemony.
For China, this moment represents a strategic juncture in breaking the West’s technological monopolies and promoting reforms in global governance. In fact, China has consistently upheld the principle that artificial intelligence should serve humanity. It opposes technological blockades, bloc confrontation and monopolistic control. It advocates addressing the global risks posed by AI through multilateral coordination and cooperation.
In the field of artificial intelligence, China does not see itself as a strategic competitor, the West sees it, but rather as a defender of global AI security, a promoter of multilateral governance and a contributor to the inclusive sharing of technological progress.
In October 2023, China unveiled its Global AI Governance Initiative, which advocates that the development of artificial intelligence should adhere to certain principles—a “people-centered approach,” “AI for good” and “mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.” Only in this way can humanity effectively seize opportunities and address challenges brought about by the rapid advancement of AI technologies, promote an open and fair AI governance framework and ensure that technological progress benefits human civilization as a whole.
The emergence of the Mythos Moment further highlights the importance of global multilateral cooperation and provides additional validation of the forward-looking nature of China’s proposals. It offers guidance for global AI governance at a stage when the technology is still evolving rapidly.
