US and China begin low-key talks on AI safety despite public opposition
Behind public posturing, the United States and China have started a dialogue on AI incident notification, while CEOs of major AI firms urged the UN for shared safeguards.
During a UN Security Council session, CEOs of top US AI companies highlighted the technology’s threat to global stability and asked for international guardrails, including bans on AI-enabled biological weapons. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in New York and agreed to explore a notification mechanism for AI incidents that could affect national security, echoing proposals from Anthropic’s Dario Amodei.
President Donald Trump, ahead of his summit with Xi Jinping, posted that "super intelligence" would be discussed but insisted the US stance mirrors China’s, while Xi later stressed the need for human-controlled AI development. The behind-the-scenes dialogue contrasts sharply with Trump’s recent UN General Assembly remarks rejecting any global AI control scheme. Additional voices, such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Hugging Face’s Clement Delangue, advocated for rapid incident reporting and open-source models as safety measures, underscoring a growing split between industry calls for coordination and some political leaders’ hands-off approach.
Why it matters
Cooperative AI safety talks could shape global rules that affect security, innovation and geopolitical competition.
How this story developed
- Sep 9 UK Prime Minister warns of AI security threats as expert cites >10% extinction risk
- Sep 15 Senator Bernie Sanders and commentator Steve Bannon will speak together at the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, urging stricter AI safeguards.
- Sep 16 Bannon blamed the president’s inaction on the influence of tech oligarchs.
- Sep 16 Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic after issuing the warning.
- Sep 19 The United States is weighing a postponement of major arms sales to Taiwan, potentially extending the delay past the APEC summit.
- Sep 19 In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said the AI Force will mirror the Space Force and aim to protect the fast-growing AI sector. He promised the initiative will encourage development while using existing laws to curb abuses, and he pledged not to hinder the industry’s growth. The post also claimed AI could become as significant as the Internet, potentially representing a quarter of the U.S. economy, and asserted that the United States currently leads China in the field.
- Sep 19 Trump added the AI Force proposal to his agenda.
- Sep 21 US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met in New York to propose an AI safety notification framework for the upcoming Trump-Xi summit.
- Sep 21 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the eight‑hour New York talks “very successful” and presented a proposal for an AI safety notification mechanism.
- Sep 22 Trump announced the creation of an “AI Force” and the selection of an AI czar.
- Sep 23 U.S. officials are considering extending the pause on Taiwan arms sales beyond the APEC summit.
- Sep 23 Coverage now omits the previously reported warnings and resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon.
- Sep 24 The Busan trade truce was extended to Jan. 10.
- Sep 24 State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs issued a memo ordering diplomats to use “Super Intelligence” and the acronym “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence.”
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