Here’s what the Democratic congressman said—this has been widely condemned in the U.S.: “As long as we stop developing large models, China’s large models will also stop progressing.” Abdul El-Sayed, who has just been elected as the first Muslim U.S. Senator in American history, claimed that the United States should fully suspend cutting-edge AI research and need not worry too much about China catching up. Sayed asserted that China’s AI is merely a copycat of American AI, likening it to someone being towed by a speedboat. He argued that when America moves fast, China progresses quickly; and if America halts development of frontier large models, China will automatically stop progressing too.