US Pushes Allied Nations to Choose Between American and Chinese AI in Binary Choice
According to Reuters reporting, the US government is drafting a letter to partner nations demanding they clarify which camp—American or Chinese—they align with regarding artificial intelligence. As competition between the US and China over AI technology becomes central to national strategy, allied and friendly nations face a new phase of forced choice.
The US government is drafting a letter to partner nations demanding they clarify "which camp to align with" amid confrontation with China in the artificial intelligence sector, according to Reuters reporting.
Behind this move lies the reality that competition between the US and China over AI technology has moved beyond mere corporate rivalry to become central to national strategy. The US has already progressively strengthened restrictions on China, including semiconductor export controls and limits on access to advanced AI technology. The current letter initiative can be seen as an extension of such policies.
According to Reuters, the US is preparing a diplomatic document demanding that partner nations specify which technology and infrastructure—American or Chinese—they will adopt. The specific addressees and detailed contents of the document remain unconfirmed at this time.
The significance of this move is substantial. Until now, many nations have adopted a "multi-alignment" stance, utilizing technologies from multiple countries in parallel. Should the US shift toward pressuring allied and friendly nations to make a clear choice, it would suggest that international "bloc formation" in AI technology is accelerating further.
In particular, cloud services that form the infrastructure of AI, semiconductor chips, and sources for large language models (LLM) are increasingly treated as issues directly tied to national security. The choice of which country's AI technology to depend on has implications not only for economic interests but also for security positioning, making it a difficult decision for nations to make.
The focus going forward is on what specific content the letter will contain and how partner nations will react to it. Should more countries comply with US demands, the global AI technology ecosystem could move toward bipolarization. It is necessary to closely monitor governments' responses and the resulting international realignment of AI technology.
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