Top Democrat on House China Committee Calls for International AI Inspections and Ban on Self-Improving Systems

Top Democrat on the House China committee calls for international inspections of leading AI laboratories and a ban on self-improving systems

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Lucy Quagginin New York

Published: 6:48am, 22 Sep 2026Updated: 6:50am, 22 Sep 2026

The US and China should agree on international regulatory standards for artificial intelligence (AI), akin to atomic-era guardrails, said Ro Khanna, the ranking member of the US House Select Committee on China, in New York on Monday ahead of the two countries’ high-stakes summit.

The remarks come two days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump for a closely watched summit where AI is expected to be on the agenda after the two countries agreed to establish a dialogue on the technology a day earlier.

“I hope there will be an agreement between Trump and Xi Jinping to have some safety standards,” Khanna told the South China Morning Post. “To have a ban on recursive self-improving AI and also a certification standard and inspection standard to make sure we don’t have AI models that lose control or that are misused.”

Khanna noted that the two leaders planned to discuss AI but said they needed a concrete framework to reach an agreement.