China's Xi urges U.S. to cooperate on AI

Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Donald Trump that there is more opportunity for cooperation than competition on artificial intelligence.

That's according to a state media readout of the two leaders' meeting in the White House Oval Office Thursday local time.

"The two sides can continue AI dialogue, exchange views on risks and benefits, and together guard against the misuse or malicious use of AI," Xi said in Chinese, according to a CNBC translation of the state media readout.

He noted AI is important to both the U.S. and China. "Both sides have competition. Cooperation, even more so," he said.

Xi also emphasized that humans should maintain control of the technology, and that AI should support human progress.

The U.S. has restricted China's ability to access advanced semiconductors for training AI models, and criticized Chinese companies for allegedly taking part in illicit distillation of American AI capabilities.

Recent incidents have raised fears that increasingly autonomous AI models could make attacks faster and harder to contain.

Following a meeting with Chinese negotiators in New York, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week the two sides had discussed setting up a "U.S.-China AI Dialogue." He said the U.S. proposed introducing an alert system for AI incidents.

China's Commerce Ministry confirmed Thursday that its senior trade negotiators had held their first talks with the U.S. on artificial intelligence.