US, China Open Talks on AI Safety

The US and China are preparing for their first official bilateral talks devoted exclusively to artificial intelligence since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Reuters reported. The meeting is tentatively planned for mid-September, ahead of Trump’s 24 September summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the American delegation. Washington wants to discuss cooperation on monitoring AI-directed cyberattacks and has proposed that US and Chinese AI labs share information to help prevent AI-linked attacks.

The US is also worried that advanced Chinese AI models could eventually be used to carry out cyberattacks. Washington also plans to raise allegations that Chinese companies have used proprietary US models to train their own – a process known as “distillation”.

Chinese officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of the talks and see them as a major outcome of the Trump-Xi summit, according to Reuters. The final agenda and list of participants remain in flux.

Experts expect limited results but say establishing a channel through which the two sides could share information and monitor serious AI safety incidents would be an important first step.

(Reuters, mja)