By Laurie Chen
BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - The United States and China will hold talks over AI in September, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the rival superpowers grapple with how to mitigate the risks posed by each other's increasingly powerful frontier models.
The AI talks, a significant outcome of the Trump-Xi summit in May, will likely take place before Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned September 24 visit to the U.S., said the sources, who asked not to be named as the information
is not public. The dates, however, have not been finalised, they said.
As economic, political and military rivals, China and the U.S. have grown increasingly anxious over each other's AI capabilities amid an accelerating global AI race.
Beijing and Washington are weighing how to regulate advanced AI models that could strengthen military capabilities, enable cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and disrupt labour markets.
The September talks, reported by Reuters for the first time on Tuesday, would be led on the U.S. side by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, four of the sources said.
The identities of other participants for the U.S. and China, as well as the agenda and location of the discussion, are still under deliberation as preparations are at an initial stage, three of the people said.
The White House, U.S. State Department and U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
China's National Development and Reform Commission, cyberspace regulator, industry and foreign ministries, and the State Council did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.
TALKS WILL BE FIRST OFFICIAL AI DIALOGUE UNDER TRUMP
Former U.S. President Joe Biden agreed with Xi that humans, not AI, should control decisions on the use of nuclear weapons following working-level talks in Geneva in 2024. But the planned meetings would constitute the first official U.S.-China dialogue on AI under President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has already limited exports to China of some of the most advanced AI chips, and news outlet Axios has reported that, faced with the growing capabilities and popularity of Chinese open-weight AI models, Washington is considering restrictions on their use by U.S. companies.
Chinese authorities, meanwhile, are mulling curbs on overseas access to the most powerful Chinese-developed AI models, amid concerns about the hacking potential of Anthropic's Mythos, which is currently not available to the general public.
Bessent said in May that future talks would be "aimed at halting proliferation of powerful AI models ... to non-state actors" and that meetings could start "within the next four to eight weeks".
Following Trump's visit, China's foreign ministry confirmed the two nations had agreed to establish intergovernmental AI talks, but Beijing has not commented publicly since.
CHINA LOOKING FOR ENGAGEMENT, NOT POLITICAL TALKS
Beijing's priority list for the discussions includes Mythos, how the U.S. will control the release of future advanced frontier models, and whether Washington will impose restrictions on Chinese open-weight models, analysts said.
The Trump administration is in talks with U.S. AI companies about creating voluntary safety standards for the release of new AI models, but it has not yet announced any regulatory measures.
Chinese authorities will continue internal deliberations on AI issues over the next month before deciding which officials from which ministries will participate in the AI dialogue, said one of the sources.
China is looking for real engagement and technical discussions on AI issues from the U.S. rather than political talks, the source added.
"This is the first meeting, they're unlikely to solve any major problems. I think they will try to agree to some basic terms, like what defines a frontier AI model," said Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Editing by Eduardo Baptista and Joe Bavier)
