Washington and Beijing are weighing the initiation of official talks on artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions are under consideration as leaders from the two countries prepare to meet at a summit in Beijing next week - a meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.
Officials on both sides are said to be focused on a narrow set of AI-related risks. Chief among these are concerns about AI models that behave unpredictably, the military use of autonomous systems, and the potential for AI tools to enable attacks by non-state actors.
The U.S. delegation to the prospective AI talks would be led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Chinese authorities have not yet designated a counterpart to lead their side of the conversations, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The idea for talks comes amid heightened attention to the security implications of advanced AI systems. One recent development cited by observers is a decision by AI startup Anthropic to withhold public release of its most advanced model, Mythos, on the grounds that the model could be used to facilitate large-scale cyberattacks.
The scope of the proposed discussions appears to concentrate on shared vulnerabilities rather than on broader economic or commercial AI competition. By targeting erratic model behavior, autonomous weaponization and AI-enabled attacks, the talks would place emphasis on operational and security risks that cross national boundaries.
At this stage, details remain limited. It is not yet clear how formal the discussions would be, what timeline negotiators would follow, or what mechanisms - if any - might be considered to mitigate the highlighted risks. Similarly, the Chinese side has not publicly announced who will represent Beijing in these potential talks.
Contextual note: The information above reflects the current state of deliberations as described by people with knowledge of the matter. There has been no public confirmation from either government about the final agenda for the upcoming summit.