As President Donald Trump and a group of top technology executives prepare to travel to China this week to meet with President Xi Jinping, lawmakers and policy experts are urging the administration to sharpen its position on artificial intelligence (AI) policy and safety.
Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing on May 14-15 for talks with Xi that are expected to cover the economy, Taiwan, Iran, and emerging technologies. AI policy and semiconductor trade are likely to feature prominently in those discussions as the United States reevaluates restrictions and safeguards tied to advanced AI systems and chip exports to China.
Executives expected to join Trump include Tesla CEO and former Senior White House Advisor Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, according to reporting by The New York Times.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is organizing the summit on the U.S. side, told The Wall Street Journal last month that the administration’s goal is to stabilize relations with China while advancing U.S. strategic interests. Bessent also confirmed that AI issues are on the summit agenda.
Policy analysts said the talks could shape the next phase of U.S.-China competition over AI development, governance, and semiconductor access – issues with growing implications for national security, export controls, and technology supply chains.
Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said this week he expects discussions to include a possible framework for future bilateral talks on AI risk and safety.
That framework would not necessarily reduce AI competition between the two countries, experts said, but could establish guardrails around shared security risks tied to increasingly powerful AI systems.
“AI models are becoming powerful enough to create serious national security risks … The United States and China are both potential targets for such attacks,” wrote Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s China Center.
“As the developers of the world’s most advanced AI systems, the United States and China are uniquely positioned to address these risks. This does not require broad trust, strategic alignment, or compromise on national interests. The United States and China can continue to compete vigorously in AI while taking practical steps to reduce shared risks,” Chan continued.
Chan said he expects Xi to position China as a co-leader in global AI governance while pressing for dialogue on military AI risks and opposing U.S. efforts to constrain China’s AI development. At the same time, he said Washington is likely to reaffirm U.S. leadership over the rules and standards governing AI technologies amid concerns over an accelerating AI arms race between the two nations.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also pressing the administration to take a firm position on AI safeguards during the summit.
In a statement, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said that AI talks between Trump and Xi must “make clear that humans, not machines, come first.”
Sanders proposed that the United States and China pursue limited AI cooperation in areas including technical information sharing, model safety standards, and potential “AI redlines.” He also raised the prospect of restrictions on uncontrollable superintelligent AI systems, comparing the discussions to Cold War-era nuclear arms agreements.
“The existential risk posed by AI demands nothing less from Trump and Xi,” Sanders said.
The summit also comes under warnings from leading U.S. AI companies that Chinese AI companies have been distilling American AI. Distillation is a technique that involves querying proprietary AI models tens of thousands of times to mimic their behavior and reproduce it in cheaper versions.
Last month, the White House said it had evidence of those campaigns, and it was exploring a “range of measures” to hold actors accountable.
“[China has] been caught red handed,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said during a Brookings Institution event on Monday. “We’re still maintaining a quantitative edge on innovation, but there is a pacing threat going forward, and if we don’t start holding … [China] accountable, then that gap will narrow.”
It is unclear whether those campaigns and measures will receive conversation at the coming summit.
Advanced semiconductor exports are also expected to draw attention during the talks. In December, Trump announced that Nvidia would be allowed to export certain H200 AI chips to approved customers in China and other countries under a policy requiring the United States to receive 25% of associated profits. However, that policy received backlash from bipartisan members of Congress and experts who have warned that the move may end up becoming a major national security concession.