As industry leaders urge a global slowdown in artificial intelligence development for the sake of humanity, the two superpowers driving the technology\u2019s rapid advancement have given no indication they intend to hit the brakes.<\/p>\n
The United States and China, which are locked in a fierce strategic rivalry, have each rebutted calls to slow the pace of AI development, even as industry executives and researchers stress the need for international cooperation to avoid exposing humans to catastrophic \u2013 or even existential \u2013 risks.<\/p>\n
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As US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare to meet on Wednesday in Washington, DC, for the third time this year, expectations for cooperation on AI safety are modest. Observers anticipated measures that, at best, would fall far short of the coordinated slowdown that many experts said is needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two countries host nearly all frontier labs and most of the models people download,\u201d said Alvin Wang Graylin, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute\u2019s Center for China Analysis, describing agreed guardrails between the US and China as \u201cclose to a precondition\u201d for safe AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cA safety regime covering one side\u2019s models covers half the problem,\u201d Wang Graylin said.<\/p>\n
Hampering the prospects for US-China cooperation, analysts said, are mutual mistrust and divergent perceptions of the primary risks involved.<\/p>\n
Trump has dismissed fears about AI as a \u201cconspiracy\u201d and suggested guardrails are not needed under his leadership, stressing the need for\u00a0the US to stay ahead of China in the frontier technology.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has cast AI dominance as crucial to the US maintaining its position as the top global power, on Tuesday again poured cold water on hopes for international cooperation, telling the United Nations General Assembly that Washington would oppose any \u201cglobalist scheme\u201d to control AI.<\/p>\n
China has taken a more hands-on approach to AI regulation \u2013 releasing the third iteration of its security framework this month \u2013 but has similarly rebuffed calls for a slowdown, dismissing fears of existential risks aired in Silicon Valley as \u201cfearmongering\u201d.<\/p>\n
While Chinese officials have raised concerns about the dangers of AI, they have related it to more prosaic concerns, including cybersecurity and the authority of the ruling Communist Party.<\/p>\n
In a rare essay this month, Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Yixin warned of \u201chostile forces\u201d using AI to \u201cfabricate political rumours\u201d and \u201cincite antagonistic sentiments\u201d, threatening \u201cpolitical security, institutional security and ideological security\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina also increasingly recognises loss of control, misuse and cyber-risks but is much more sensitive to the possibility that \u2018AI safety\u2019 could become a justification for restricting Chinese access to chips, computers or markets,\u201d said Sun Chenghao, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the deepest obstacle is whether both sides can separate genuine safety cooperation from the wider technology competition,\u201d Sun said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf every safety discussion is linked to export controls or slowing China\u2019s development, Beijing will naturally question the purpose of cooperation,\u201d Sun added.<\/p>\n