US proposes AI incident alert system to China after New York talks
After Sunday's all-day talks in New York, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled a US proposal for a mutual notification mechanism covering AI incidents that rise to national-security level, for Trump and Xi to consider at this week's summit.
The United States has proposed a formal mechanism for Washington and Beijing to notify each other about artificial-intelligence incidents that threaten national security, after all-day talks in New York on Sunday between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Bessent told reporters the two sides had discussed a new US–China AI dialogue with an emphasis on national-security concerns and a notification system covering “common goals and common threats”. He unveiled the proposal for President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider at their summit in Washington this week.
“We think that just like 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 mechanism would create a channel for sharing information when an AI-related incident — such as a cyberattack or a system failure — reaches national-security significance, though officials have not said publicly what would trigger an alert or how it would operate.
Trump and Xi first discussed potential consultations on AI development in May in Beijing, but that forum was never formalised. Beijing’s response to the new proposal is unclear: He Lifeng and chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang left the talks at JPMorgan Chase’s Manhattan headquarters without speaking to media, and a Xinhua readout only briefly acknowledged that the two sides had spoken about AI.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said export controls on sophisticated AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment were not on the agenda for the AI mechanism talks.
Sources
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