<p>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the Trump administration has initiated formal discussions with Beijing, termed the USA-China AI Dialogues, aimed at enhancing transparency and communication between the American and Chinese artificial intelligence industries.</p>
<p>“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the No. 1 and the No. 2 AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent told reporters on Sunday, following discussions between the two nations in New York City.</p>
<p>Bessent elaborated on the progress of the talks in an interview with CNBC on Monday, stating, “The important thing was to start talking.” He mentioned that the United States and China have agreed to reconvene for further AI discussions in Shenzhen, China, in November.</p>
<p>“We want to open a communications line, an incident line, so that we have constant communications, especially in the event of some kind of an incident,” Bessent said. “Then we want to start discussing protocols for what our — so both sides can agree on what the leading AI dangers are: whether it’s uncontrollable agents, whether it’s non-state actors, and cyber non-state actors in bioweapons.”</p>
<p>The bilateral AI meetings over the weekend occurred just before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House on Thursday. Analysts expect Xi and President Donald Trump to address AI and the future of frontier AI model development as key topics during their meeting this week.</p>
<p>China is considered the U.S.’s main competitor in AI development, although the U.S. currently holds an advantage in the industry. Discussions regarding rapid AI expansion reached a critical point last week after a former Anthropic researcher issued a warning about potential dangers associated with frontier development. Following this, the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceXAI called for a national slowdown on model development and increased regulations.</p>
<p>These calls have prompted lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to consider how to regulate AI. Trump has opposed the push for more regulations in the industry, stating on Truth Social that “there is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”</p>
<p>Bessent concurred with the president’s critical view of the industry leaders’ calls for regulation, telling CNBC that the AI industry is seeking to shift liability away from themselves, to which he responded, “we will not do that.”</p>
<p>“What did they try to do last week? It was, ‘well, there’s a chance that, 10% chance, we could destroy the world, but we want the government to give us a liability shield,'” Bessent said. “And, you know, that’s good business for them, bad business for the American people.”</p>