The Narrow Path to a Trump-Xi AI Deal

However, one major skeptic is Trump, who responded on Truth Social that “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX.” Moreover, he insisted that “President Xi, of China, just announced that China will be doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of AI, or its future.”

That characterization is misleading. China regulates AI more stringently than most other countries, and already enforces AI security guidance, ethics review requirements, and binding obligations on consumer AI services. Xi has also publicly called for legal, technical, and ethical guardrails that keep AI under human control (albeit while resisting restrictions that could impede China’s technological rise). “We should strengthen risk-awareness and ensure that AI is secure and controllable,” he told the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 17.

The hope among safety advocates is that Xi and Trump might strike a deal on AI. While Trump’s first term was anchored in antipathy to China, he posed a notably different tone in Beijing, calling Xi “a man I respect greatly” and telling him that “it’s an honor to be your friend.” Although that cordiality does not erase the national competition that makes either side hesitant to constrain its technological development, it may put  narrower cooperation on the table.