The competition between the United States and China over leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) remains a defining global challenge. Jacob Helberg, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, who leads the Washington-led Pax Silica initiative, discussed recent US measures to restrict foreign access to advanced AI models developed by Anthropic.

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post on July 16, 2026, Helberg defended the US Department of Commerce’s early June decision to bar foreign nationals from using Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models on unspecified national security grounds. He emphasized that these restrictions aim to protect the US and its allies from potential cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure.

“We do not want cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure or the critical infrastructure of our allies,” Helberg said. He further explained that the administration has carefully assessed how advanced AI models can be released safely, stating, “We undertook a process to make sure that we can have a sensible approach to releasing that technology in a way that is safe and secure for our critical infrastructure and our financial sector.”

The Pax Silica initiative, which Helberg leads, includes 22 other nations plus the European Union as signatories. This global effort focuses on excluding China from AI supply chains to maintain US technological leadership and security.

Anthropic complied with the US order, though access to the models was restored three weeks later.

Sources