Chinese President Xi Jinping told Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday that the US and China can continue their dialogue on artificial intelligence. The two sides can also jointly prevent its misuse and abuse, according to China’s foreign ministry readout of the talks.
“Both China and the United States have strong AI capabilities. They may have competition, but they may cooperate even more. The right thing to do is to draw on each other’s strengths, not guard against each other,” the readout says of Xi’s remarks.
“The two sides can continue their dialogue on AI, exchange views on its risks and benefits, and jointly prevent the misuse and abuse of AI. AI must be kept under human control,” the readout says.
Xi also called for a people-centred approach, so that AI serves the progress of humanity, the readout says.
The readout also gives Trump’s side of the conversation on AI. The two leaders met for about 90 minutes in the Oval Office. By Friday morning in Washington, the White House had not published its own readout of the meeting.
“AI concerns the future of humanity. The United States and China should maintain dialogue and strengthen cooperation on AI,” the readout says of Trump’s remarks.
Trump’s post before the talks
Hours before the meeting, Trump set out his own position in a post on Truth Social.
“A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ!” Trump wrote.
“Super intelligence” is Trump’s new name for AI. On Tuesday, he told the UN General Assembly that the US would encourage the technology, not rein it in. He also said the US would reject any global mechanism to control it. Earlier this month, he called AI fears a hoax on Truth Social.
What the leaders said in public
Before the closed talks, both leaders spoke at the arrival ceremony inside the White House. Xi’s remarks were interpreted into English.
“Both China and the United States are leading nations in artificial intelligence. We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people,” Xi said.
“We do not need to avoid mentioning competition, but our competition should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds. It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” he said.
Trump spoke first, and named AI among the topics for the visit.
“During this visit, we will also discuss pressing issues concerning security, technology, and superintelligence, SI. The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come,” Trump said.
The first US-China AI dialogue
The summit followed the first US-China AI dialogue between the two governments. China’s commerce ministry spokesperson, He Yadong, announced it in Beijing on Thursday, as CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng reported. The lead trade negotiators, Vice Premier He Lifeng and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, held it, he said. It took place during an eighth round of trade talks in the US.
The ministry called those talks candid, in-depth and constructive, and said they reached several points of agreement. Bessent and He met in Manhattan on 20 September. There, the US proposed AI incident alerts between the two countries. They would cover events serious enough to count as national security incidents. Neither the ministry’s statement nor the Chinese readout of Thursday’s meeting mentions that proposal.
The trade teams also agreed to extend a truce that was due to expire on 10 November. Bessent told Fox News on Wednesday that it would now run until 10 January. According to the readout, Xi said the two teams had reached a new joint arrangement.
The state dinner
Trump hosted Xi at a state dinner in the East Room on Thursday evening. The White House guest list, published by CNBC, included Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of OpenAI. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella were on it. So were Google’s Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin. David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, also attended.
Apple chairman Tim Cook, Huang, Elon Musk and AMD’s Lisa Su sat at the leaders’ table, CNBC reported. Anthropic was not on the list. On Wednesday, its chief executive, Dario Amodei, asked the UN Security Council to back a ban on AI bioweapons as a first step.
“No leader, no company, and no nation can manage this alone,” Amodei told the council.
In his toast at the dinner, Xi said the two leaders had reached “common understanding on many issues”. That had “added new substance” to the relationship, he said. On Friday, Xi and Peng Liyuan were due to join Trump and Melania Trump for a private tea and a tour of the National Archives, before leaving Washington.