AI development in focus as Xi Jinping meets US leadership

Weapons, war and trade are usually in focus when the leaders of the world's largest economies, the United States and China, meet. But with Xi Jinping visiting the United States Wednesday through Friday, AI development has emerged as one of the hottest topics.

Xi Jinping's US trip has been preceded by a series of AI alarms from US tech giants. They are worried that it is going too fast and that humans are about to lose control over technology. Doomsday prophets go so far as to warn of the end of mankind.

At the same time, there is an AI race going on between China and the US that nobody wants to lose. Whoever wins that race wins it all, US President Donald Trump has said.

And the American AI companies agree, care about their profits. They want the US to have restrictions on technology transfer and exports to contain China. It is crucial that democratic countries lead the development, wrote AI company Anthropics CEO Dario Amodei in an open letter that drew attention.

Scare-mongering, was the response from the regime in China where AI development is the second fastest in the world and the communist regime is determined to catch up with the US.

But there is also concern in China about what AI technology can achieve. Recently, the head of the intelligence service, Chen Yixin, warned that AI could threaten the country's national interests and, by extension, the rule of the Communist Party.

There is thus a common interest here: to ensure that humanity does not lose control over AI and to reduce the risk of the technology threatening the nation's interest. It can be about rules to protect against cyber attacks, biological weapons and telecommunications.

The topic was raised as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in New York this weekend to lay the groundwork for Xi Jinping and Donald Trump's meeting on Thursday. Scott Bessent is said to have proposed a "notification mechanism" that alerts AI events that threaten national security. Exactly how it will be done was not clear. China's Xinhua news agency briefly noted that the two politicians talked about AI issues.

An obstacle to an agreement could be that there is a distrust between the US and China. China's leaders suspect the United States of wanting to create regulations that hinder the development of Chinese companies and increase the American lead. The US, for its part, accuses Chinese AI companies of stealing technology from the Americans. Among other things, it is claimed that Chinese AI companies use American models to take advantage of technology that the American companies developed through massive training.

No major breakthroughs in the AI ​​issue are expected at the meeting in Washington, but there are hopes that it could be the start of a more formalized dialogue between the superpowers about AI. Aside from the AI ​​issue, most expect Trump and Xi Jinping to extend the truce in the trade war they agreed to in May. The war in Ukraine and Iran is also on the agenda.