Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Took Aim At Chinese AI.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed that Chinese AI models pose a threat, especially in the hands of Iranian users. GETTY IMAGES

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Thursday that Iran's potential use of Beijing's AI models for nefarious purposes posed a significant and realistic threat.

"Their [Chinese AI] models are dangerous ... I don't know who here saw the refrigerators in 150 grocery stores in France that got turned off. That was a Chinese model, probably the worst of all worlds: the Iranians using a Chinese model," the high-ranking government official claimed while speaking at an event organized by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation on Thursday.

On the same day, members of President Donald Trump's AI taskforce met to discuss "ways to encourage critical U.S. sectors to report AI-powered ‌cyberattacks," Reuters reported, although no mention was made of the French incident in the report.

In October, hundreds of French supermarkets were targeted by hackers, who raised the temperature of supermarket freezers, causing large amounts of food to spoil and be discarded. Paris has since blamed Iran for the attacks, and is considering retaliatory measures.

Other European nations, including Sweden, Luxembourg and Belgium, have been on the receiving end of similar attacks. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin has said that it is "very likely" that Tehran is responsible.

However, Bessent is the first to claim that the Iranians were using Chinese AI models to conduct the attack. Chinese state-owned media has been quick to deny Bessent's allegations; the CCP-controlled Global Times said that Bessent was using the French incident to "smear Chinese AI."

"The US has frequently imposed restrictions on Chinese technology companies on national security grounds in recent years ... by linking a cybersecurity incident in Europe to Chinese AI, Washington could further reinforce the so-called China technology threat narrative and create another pretext for suppressing China's AI development," the Global Times claimed, citing Hu Qimu, a Chinese professor at the Maritime Silk Road Institute of Huaqiao University.

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China and the U.S. are indeed at the forefront of global AI innovation and competition, and Washington has placed export controls on trade of the U.S.'s most advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China in order to maintain a competitive advantage in the critical technology over Beijing.

Despite the incendiary remarks, Bessent is scheduled to travel with President Donald Trump to China next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, where the president will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Discussions regarding the two countries' policy towards, and potential cooperation on, AI is expected to be at the top of the agenda.

U.S. China Artificial Intelligence