A report published on Aug. 27 by Jacob Stokes, a former Obama-era national security official and now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), has triggered backlash for arguing that the United States should be prepared to use cyber operations or even military force against Chinese data centers if China were to achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI, first. The report, titled Superpowers and AGI, frames a U.S.-China race for AGI in escalating stages and says a trailing country could move from accelerating domestic development to sabotage, including offensive cyberattacks and, at the most extreme end, missile or bomb strikes on major computing facilities. Stokes also calls for Washington to run scenario exercises to determine what intelligence threshold could justify extreme measures, including preventive strikes. The proposal drew criticism after the South China Morning Post reported on it on Sept. 4, with POGO’s William Hartung calling the idea reckless and warning it could risk war between two nuclear powers. Former Global Times editor Hu Xijin also reacted publicly on X.