Trump rules out U.S.-China cooperation on artificial intelligence

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not consider joint ventures with China to develop artificial intelligence (AI), arguing that this would be tantamount to handing over U.S. technological secrets to major economic competitors.

Although the American people are increasingly concerned about the risks that artificial intelligence may bring, Trump once again opposed restrictions on the development of artificial intelligence when attending an event in Washington on Tuesday (September 29), believing that these restrictions would hinder the future development of this technology.

After Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the White House last week, China and the United States announced the establishment of a new artificial intelligence dialogue mechanism and planned to continue talks in November.

The two countries have also established new communication channels to avoid misunderstandings caused by artificial intelligence-related incidents.

Trump on Tuesday attended the launch of America.gov, a new website that uses artificial intelligence to help streamline government services. Trump believes that the United States is "far ahead" in the field of artificial intelligence and does not want to be "conflated" with potential competitors.

"If we do this, we are giving them (China) a lot of secrets that we have, and of course they will want to get them, and so will other countries."

He added: "Frankly speaking, there is no third place... now it is a competition between us and China."

Trump said that artificial intelligence was also discussed during his meeting with Xi Jinping last week, but he still opposed the joint development of this technology between China and the United States.

"This way, they have immediate access to something that we know but they don't know yet." He added: "We are ahead of China and ahead of all other countries, and I hope to maintain this advantage."

Before the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that spreading "threat theories" and adopting a confrontational attitude would hinder the governance of artificial intelligence.

Trump later had lunch with representatives from government departments and technology companies at the White House, including representatives from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta. He said those present "generally agreed that artificial intelligence should be subject to substantial self-regulation."

After the meeting, Trump told reporters that the participating technology leaders had signed a "morally binding" document, hoping to use it as "a safeguard" against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Trump also said that the government is likely to appoint a "Super Intelligence Czar" in the coming days. He signed an executive order on Tuesday afternoon to officially change the term "artificial intelligence" in government documents to "super intelligence."

In the United States, more and more people are worried about the dangers that artificial intelligence may bring, and some people are asking the government to strengthen supervision.

A Politico poll released at the end of September showed that about two out of every three Americans believe that artificial intelligence carries at least a "moderate" risk and may eventually destroy humanity.

Among Trump supporters surveyed, 44% said they would rather put a pause on the development of artificial intelligence.