Trump-Xi talks to address AI guardrails
Asheville, Sep 2 (IANS) Artificial intelligence is expected to feature prominently when US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in Washington this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said, calling for guardrails and closer communication between the "world’s two leading AI powers".
Bessent said US officials had only limited discussions about AI with the Chinese delegation during the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville because Beijing’s designated official for the subject was not present.
“We had limited discussions with the Chinese on AI because the designate for their AI discussions is my counterpart, Vice Mayor He Lifeng. So he was not here,” Bessent told reporters.
“We did have a few limited conversations,” he added.
Bessent then pointed to the planned meeting between Trump and Xi as the likely forum for more substantive discussions.
“I expect that when President Trump and Xi Jinping meet in Washington in September, that AI will be on the agenda,” he said.
The Treasury Secretary said the United States and China had a shared responsibility to establish safeguards around the rapidly advancing technology.
“As the number one and number two superpowers in AI, by a lot, it behoves all of us to put up guardrails, to have close communication,” Bessent said.
He also raised concerns about advanced AI systems falling into the hands of non-state actors.
Bessent said the two countries needed “to prevent the non-state actors from achieving any of these powerful, large language models”.
He did not explain what kind of guardrails Washington might propose or whether the discussions would cover export controls, computing infrastructure, safety standards or access to advanced AI models.
Bessent said the United States had more extensive conversations with other G20 countries about how financial institutions and industries were preparing for AI-related opportunities and risks.
“In terms of the conversations with the rest of the G20, because the US is leading, they’re always very interested in what we were doing,” he said.
The discussions included the structures established by US financial institutions to communicate with one another and efforts to improve resilience as AI becomes more deeply integrated into the economy.
“We’ve talked about what are we doing to increase resiliency, and we’ve told them we are happy to show them how we have structured industry working groups on this,” Bessent said.
He said governments needed to remain in close contact because AI models were becoming more powerful and developing rapidly.
“These models are very powerful. They’re moving very quickly, and we all have a responsibility to make the best of them and to make sure that we get to the productivity phase,” he said.
The G20 chair’s statement described AI as a general-purpose technology with the potential to reshape the global economy. It said countries that responsibly develop, adopt and spread the technology would probably lead global growth in the coming years.
The document also recognised possible financial and sector-specific dangers. It backed regulatory and supervisory frameworks intended to preserve financial stability, support innovation and strengthen cyber resilience as AI and other emerging technologies become more widely used.
Trump and Xi have held repeated discussions on trade, technology and security during Trump’s two terms in office. The planned Washington meeting would give the two leaders an opportunity to address AI directly as governments examine safeguards for increasingly capable models.
--IANS
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