US and China agree to establish official AI dialogue with security mechanism for incident notifications ahead of Trump-Xi summit.
Ahead of a summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Washington, the US and China have agreed to establish an official joint AI dialogue. A planned notification mechanism is designed to activate when AI incidents touch on national security concerns.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the agreement on Sunday following talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York, according to the Financial Times and The Information. Bessent proposed a "notification mechanism" intended to raise the alarm on AI incidents tied to national security. The dialogue aims to help develop "a shared vision of common goals and common threats," with both sides planning another meeting to work out the details of the reporting system, The Information reports.
"We think that just like any cross-border activity, moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and number two AI powers in the world is very important," Bessent told reporters at JPMorgan's headquarters in Manhattan, where delegations had negotiated for a full day.
The announcement follows warnings from AI industry leaders that people could lose control of the technology unless research slows down. However, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer made clear that export controls on advanced AI chips were not on the agenda.
Alongside the AI dialogue, Greer noted that both sides formalized a "board of trade" that Trump and Xi had already discussed at their May meeting in Beijing. "We just had a very successful engagement with the Chinese on trade and AI, completing where we left off in Beijing," Bessent said. "In Beijing we created the board of trade and began the subject of AI, and this evening those were operationalized."
Trump will welcome Xi on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews, with the summit itself taking place Thursday in Washington and including a state dinner. This marks the first meeting between the two leaders on US soil since 2017.
A key item on the agenda is expected to be a possible extension of the trade truce both sides reached in October in Busan, South Korea. At that time, the US paused planned export controls against thousands of Chinese companies, while China delayed restrictions on rare earths. According to the Financial Times, China has pushed for an extension through the end of Trump's term, while the US has aimed to cap it at six months. Washington is concerned that Beijing isn't maintaining its rare earths commitments and is also limiting exports to Japan, which are equally critical for US supply chains.
Although US officials had previously floated an AI slowdown agreement between the two superpowers, Trump has rejected the idea given the ongoing AI race with China.