U.S., China to hold meeting on artificial intelligence

The U.S. and China are set to hold talks in Geneva on Tuesday about the risk and safety of artificial intelligence, senior administration officials announced. The first-of-its-kind meeting comes as the administration expresses concern that China’s use of the technology could undermine U.S. security. 

“Intense competition requires intense diplomacy to reduce the risk of miscalculation and unintended conflict,” a senior administration official told reporters on a call. “This is particularly true in the case of AI.” 

Their focus, officials said, will be on the risk and safety that comes with the technology, especially with advanced systems. They emphasized they didn’t expect any concrete announcements out of the discussion. 

“The talks are not going to be focused on any particular deliverables, but rather an exchange of views on the technical risks of AI and opportunity to directly communicate on respective areas of concern,” one official said. 

Administration officials noted they will reiterate concerns about Beijing’s use of AI and its potential impact on U.S. security. 

“The PRC has made AI development, as many of you know, a major national priority,” an official said. “And of course, it’s rapidly deploying capabilities across civilian as well as military national security sectors and in many cases in ways that we believe undermines both U.S. and allied national security.”

The intent to hold the talks came out of President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s summit last year in California, where the pair were both attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The meeting at an estate on the sidelines of the forum followed a year in which tensions between the two world powers flared. 

Since then, administration officials said U.S. and Chinese officials have had a series of discussions about an agenda and goals for the talks. It was officially decided to hold the first one this spring when White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Bangkok in January. 

Officials said they have been consulting with allies around the world on the talks and see the discussion as an opportunity to highlight the concerns of allies and present a “unified message” to the Chinese officials. 

The topic of artificial intelligence exploded in Washington in the summer and fall of last year – triggered, in part by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s plea to lawmakers to regulate the technology during a Senate hearing in May, which ignited questions about how lawmakers should approach the field. 

In the months following, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer launched a series of AI forums, including one in the fall that saw some of the industry’s heaviest hitters, including Altman, X’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, descend on Capitol Hill to brief the upper chamber. 

At the White House, throughout the summer, President Joe Biden announced commitments from leading AI companies to follow safeguards. It all culminated with the signing of Biden’s executive order in October.