Talks have begun between US and Chinese officials to propose a mechanism for the two countries to notify each other of artificial intelligence incidents that could threaten national security. The framework, called the US China AI Dialogue, would also see representatives from both countries meet again to discuss the technology and try to align on common goals and threats, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated.
“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent told reporters on Sunday.
Bessent noted that the discussions resumed from where they had been left off after US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing in May. Since then, public safety concerns about the technology have increased. Security incidents over the summer, including OpenAI’s agents hacking Hugging Face, highlighted the capabilities of frontier models and how the industry’s safeguards have failed to keep pace.
Concerns escalated earlier this month after Anthropic employees warned that AI could pose existential risks to humanity. Recently, leaders of major frontier laboratories, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk, have called for a slowdown in the development of the technology while establishing safety standards. In an essay proposing steps for laboratories and governments to regulate the technology’s development, Amodei requested government assistance in establishing international coordination, including with the Chinese Communist Party.
Trump has largely dismissed these calls, despite increasing bipartisan support for regulating the industry. His administration has argued that the US government already possesses adequate criminal and regulatory authority over developers.
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, which builds AI infrastructure, emphasized that AI firms are already subject to cybersecurity and damage liability laws. “Apply that first,” he said in an interview with CBS News over the weekend. “Don’t let this doomsday narrative allow someone to relieve them of the laws that currently exist.”
Trump has expressed concerns that any slowdown could result in the US losing its technological lead to China, stating: “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!” His chief science advisor David Sacks previously warned that “China is very unlikely to join a global agreement” on regulating the technology. Thomas Wolf, cofounder of open-source AI platform Hugging Face, which Nvidia recently agreed to acquire, questioned whether the US can foster global cooperation while “explicitly stating you want to design it to keep widening your own lead.”
The US is currently attempting to limit China’s progress in AI by restricting exports of advanced chips and chipmaking technology to China. Bessent indicated that officials did not discuss these US export controls during this weekend’s meetings, which also included trade discussions and were described as “very successful” ahead of this week’s visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping.