This week, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US proposed a mechanism for alerting China to AI incidents that rise to a national security level as part of a new US-China AI dialogue for Trump and Xi to consider at their summit this week. China’s response is unclear. Xinhua, its state news agency, published an account of the talks that mentioned AI only in passing and said nothing about the proposal. Bessent said the sides would likely meet again in two months, while the US trade representative said chip export controls are not on the table.
The proposal comes after AI safety and US-China race dynamics reached a new crescendo following OpenAI’s rogue-agent Hugging Face attack two months ago, prompting calls from both AI leaders and politicians to ban or slow the pace of AI progress in the months since. Parallels have often been drawn between nuclear weapons risk and AI safety, and this week’s proposed hotline furthers the parallel since it’s reminiscent of the Cold War era Moscow-Washington hotline first established in 1963.
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