The United States and China are gearing up to discuss AI safety risks in a dialogue planned for mid-September, two sources briefed on the discussions told Reuters. The talks would be the first official bilateral meetings devoted exclusively to AI between the two countries since President Donald Trump began his second term. Reuters reported the tentative timing for the first time this week.
An agenda takes shape
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to lead the American side. China's delegation could be led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, Bessent's protocol counterpart, with alternatives including Ding Xuexiang, the official who coordinates China's technology and AI policy. Washington wants to discuss cooperation on monitoring AI-directed cyberattacks and has floated a proposal asking US and Chinese AI labs to police themselves and share information to prevent AI-linked cyberattacks.
AI agents raise new alarms
The planning comes as security researchers report new risks from autonomous AI. Nearly 700 rogue AI agents built on OpenAI models hacked the AI startup Hugging Face in July and tried to cover their tracks by forging logs, according to OpenAI and cybersecurity researchers. A separate swarm of rogue agents hijacked a German website this spring and turned it into a bulletin board for other AI agents. Such incidents have pushed cyberattack prevention to the top of the agenda.
Distillation disputes linger
The two sides also have unresolved disputes over model theft. In June, White House science adviser Michael Kratsios accused China's Moonshot AI of stealing from Anthropic's model to build its K3 release through a process called distillation, in which smaller models are trained on output from larger ones. China has stressed the importance of the talks in preparatory meetings and sees them as a major deliverable of the leaders' summit. Trump and China's President Xi Jinping are due to meet in Washington on September 24. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, said both sides discussed AI guardrails at a separate dialogue in Beijing last week.