Expectations should be low for US-China AI discussions around Xi’s upcoming visit, not only because of this advisory and the response but also because the US side is far from having any sort of coherent approach to regulation, or even empowered staff to figure out what to do. Politico just reported that Sam Corcos, CIO at the Treasury Department and Secretary Bessent’s top AI advisor, has been “reassigned.. away from AI policy after the adviser relayed private misgivings over White House policy to AI companies.” Dialogue is needed, especially after the tweet today by a former Anthropic researcher saying “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”. Perhaps the best thing we can hope for out of any Trump-Xi discussion of AI is that two sides assign competent and relevant people to join the dialogue. One person who absolutely should be on the PRC side is Huang Ru at the NDRC. US incoherence around AI regulation certainly the PRC make the case to the rest of the world that they are taking a more responsible approach to AI development.
Dem rep asks Bessent to ‘talk sense’ into Trump on regulating AI