If $\left| f'(x) \right| \leq A |f(x)|^\beta $ then f is a constant function

Let $B = \{x\in [a,b]: |f(x)|=0\}$. By continuity, this set is closed. Since $f(0) = 0$, the set is non-empty. We show that it is also open.

Let $x\in B$, i.e. $f(x) =0$. By continuity, there exists $0<r<(2A)^{-1}$, such that $|f(y)|<\frac 12$ for all $y\in B_r(x)$. Fix such a $y\in B_r(x)$. We want to show that $f(y) =0$.

By the mean value inequality, we have $$|f(y)| = |f(y) - f(x)| \le |f'(\xi_0)| |y-x| \le |f'(\xi_0)|r$$ for some $\xi_0\in B_r(x)$ lying on the segment between $x$ and $y$. By assumption, we have $|f'(\xi_0)|\le A |f(\xi_0)|^\beta$, hence $$|f(y)|\le |f'(\xi_0)|r \le A|f(\xi_0)|^\beta (2A)^{-1} \le \frac 12|f(\xi_0)|^\beta.$$ By the same argument applied to $\xi_0\in B_r(x)$ instead of $y$, we see that there exists $\xi_1\in B_r(x)$, such that $|f(\xi_0)|\le \frac 12|f(\xi_1)|^\beta$. Iterating yields a sequence $\xi_n \in B_r(x)$, such that $|f(\xi_{n})|\le \frac 12|f(\xi_{n+1})|^\beta$ for all $n$. Note that by our choice of $r$, we have $|f(\xi_{n})|\le \frac 12$ for all $n$. We conclude that $$|f(y)|\le \frac 12 |f(\xi_0)|^\beta \le \frac 1{2^2}|f(\xi_1)|^{\beta^2} \le \frac{1}{2^3}|f(\xi_2)|^{\beta^3}\le \dots \le \frac{1}{2^n}|f(\xi_{n-1})|^{\beta^n}\le \frac 1{2^{n+\beta^n}},$$ for all $n\in \mathbb N$. Letting $n\to \infty$ shows that $|f(y)| = 0$ (using also $\beta \ge 1$). This implies that $B_r(x)\subset B$, hence $B$ is open.

Since $[a,b]$ is connected, it follows that $B$ must be all of $[a,b]$, hence $f= 0$.

( Edit. The ODE analysis also explains why $\beta \geq 1$ is necessary. The condition for $|f'(x)| \leq A|H(f(x))|$ to have the property that $f$ does not change sign, when $H$ is a function such that $H(x)=0$ only at $x=0$, is that $\frac{1}{H(x)}$ an has a non-integrable singularity at $0$. Knowing that this is the answer, there is no loss in considering singularities that are powers of $f$, which is what most cases would look like and how they would be recognized.)

The differential equation $f'(x) = A(x) f(x)^\beta$ can be solved explicitly, by separation of variables. The calculation shows that $f(a)=0$ is necessary, or we could write down nowhere zero solutions, by solving the equation. This bears further analysis, because superficially the problem looks like a Lipschitz condition with $|f(x) - f(y)| \leq |x-y|^\beta$ which (as is very well known and often solved as an exercise) implies constant $f$ when $\beta > 1$.

The DE for constant $\beta > 1$, writing $y$ for $f(x)$, is $$ d(\frac{1}{(\beta - 1)y^{\beta - 1}}) = A(x) dx$$

The coordinates that trivialize the equation are therefore $Y = \frac{1}{(\beta - 1)y^{\beta - 1}} $ and $X = \int A(x) dx$, in which the solutions are $Y = X + c$ for constant $c$. This brings out the idea that $A$, which appears at first to be a harmless constant removable by a linear change of variable, has a meaningful part in the problem, as velocity of the independent variable.

Under this coordinate change, $f(a)=0$ becomes $f(a)=\infty$. On a maximal interval where $f$ is nonzero, there cannot be any solutions that hit infinity at the boundary in finite "time" (here $X$ is time, so we mean a finite change in $\int A(x) dx$) while satisfying $Y - X = $ constant.

So the meaning of the problem seems to be: no singularity can be reached in finite time for this ODE.