The US and China have agreed to establish a direct communication channel for AI-related incidents, creating a limited safety mechanism between the world’s two leading AI powers.
The agreement emerged from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit to Washington and was confirmed by both governments.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the two sides will establish a communication channel for “AI incidents” and launch a formal China-US AI Dialogue to exchange views on the technology’s risks and benefits. The next round is scheduled for November.
The White House described the arrangement in similar terms, calling it a communication channel for incidents involving what the Trump administration now officially refers to as ‘super intelligence’ (SI). Neither government has explained what would qualify as an incident or how the channel will operate.
The mechanism had been under discussion before the Trump-Xi summit. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent proposed an AI incident notification system during talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York last weekend, amid concerns ranging from cyberattacks and biological misuse to malfunctioning autonomous systems and threats to critical infrastructure.
Despite agreeing to the communication channel, Trump made it clear that he is not willing to share America’s AI advances with Beijing.
“The United States of America is not going to be putting on brakes,” he told reporters outside the White House, arguing that calls to slow development would undermine America's advantage.
Asked about closer US-China cooperation on AI development, Trump was similarly dismissive.
“I would rather not integrate because we’re leading by a lot,” he said. “When you’re leading, you don’t open it up to each other.”
The comments contrasted with the more cooperative tone struck by Xi during his visit. The Chinese leader told Trump that although the two countries compete in AI, they could “cooperate even more” and should work together to prevent misuse and abuse.
“AI must be kept under human control,” Xi said, calling for a “people-centered” approach and bilateral dialogue on the risks and benefits. China has promoted similar principles through its broader global AI governance initiatives.
Trump suggested, however, that AI occupied relatively little of his discussions with Xi. “We didn’t spend that much time talking about it,” he said on Saturday, adding that much of their discussion centered on his decision to replace the term ‘artificial intelligence’ with ‘super intelligence’.
The limited agreement comes amid growing warnings from US technology executives and international officials that increasingly capable AI systems could eventually escape existing safeguards or be exploited for large-scale cyberattacks and other threats. Trump has dismissed warnings of an AI takeover as a hoax, declaring that “whoever wins AI wins.”