Washington seeks AI talks with Beijing
New York, USA—US and Chinese economic officials discussed creating a communication channel for artificial intelligence (AI) concerns at meetings on Sunday as they set the stage for a summit of the countries’ top leaders this week.
The talks come as both powers confront rising fears that increasingly capable artificial intelligence systems could wipe out humanity, offering a rare incentive for cooperation despite an intensifying race for technological supremacy.
“We just had a very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters after long talks with a team led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The talks are a prelude to a planned White House meeting on Thursday of the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies: US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The discussions, which also included the top US trade official Jamieson Greer, lasted around eight hours at JPMorgan Chase’s headquarters in New York.
Notification mechanism
Bessent said the two sides discussed setting up a way to communicate about AI issues called the “US-China AI dialogue.”
“The [United States] has proposed that we have a notification mechanism between the two countries,” Bessent said.
Such notifications are for potential “incidents,” or a situation “that rises up to a national security level from AI,” he said, adding that both sides have agreed to meet again.
Bessent and He also spoke one-on-one during the day, a source familiar with the matter said.
Chinese state media described the meetings as “candid, in-depth and constructive” on Monday.
Chinese and US officials also held a dialogue on “issues related to AI,” Xinhua added, without giving any further details.
