US proposes AI safety notifications in talks with China

Scott Bessent and He Lifeng meet in New York for US-China talks ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting later this week.

US and Chinese officials have concluded talks in New York, with Washington proposing a new mechanism for sharing information about serious artificial intelligence threats.

The talks, held ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, ended on Sunday after about eight hours, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling the discussions “very successful”.

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Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and China’s chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang also taking part.

“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent said.

The meeting was aimed at preparing for the Trump-Xi summit in Washington, but no other major agreement was announced.

Bessent said Washington had proposed a US-China AI dialogue that would include a notification system for incidents serious enough to raise national security concerns.

He said greater transparency was important between the world’s two leading AI powers, arguing that both sides should have a way to communicate over “common goals and common threats”.

Greer said export controls on advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment were not part of the proposed mechanism.

He and Li left the talks without speaking to reporters, according to the Reuters news agency.

The talks took place as a fragile US-China trade truce approaches its November 10 expiry.