Trump rejects combining US-China AI efforts

United States President Donald Trump has said the country will not be heeding growing calls to regulate the development of artificial intelligence.

On Saturday, as he departed the White House, Trump told reporters the US “is not going to be putting on brakes” for AI, even as US lawmakers and CEOs of some of the nation’s largest tech firms agreed on the need to slow its pace, citing its potential to put humanity at risk.

The president likened those fears to other issues he has previously claimed are “hoaxes”, including climate change and the investigation that examined whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russian operatives.

“When they wanna put on brakes, it’s just like everybody’s going to be dead. You’re all supposed to be dead now, because of global warming. It’s like Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. All of these different hoaxes,” Trump said.

“What they wanna do is stop our progress, because we’re leading China by a lot,” he added. “And we’re going to keep it that way.”

Trump, who just concluded a 3-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said the US should not cooperate with China on the technology.

“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.”

During his final address before the United Nations General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders on Tuesday to enact guardrails on AI, warning that unchecked development “without accountability” could put the world at risk.

US lawmakers and experts had hoped Trump and Xi would use their meeting to deliver a breakthrough agreement on AI. But that did not materialise.

“We didn’t spend that much time talking about it,” Trump said.

As criticism rippled through Washington — and around the world — over the squandered opportunity, the White House on Friday said the US and China agreed to establish a “bilateral communication channel” for AI incidents. There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the White House statement.

The president, however, indicated that any AI discussions he had with Xi, who is set to meet with Trump two more times this year, largely focused on his preferred name for the technology: “super intelligence”.

China “respects” Washington’s switch in phrasing from artificial intelligence to “super intelligence”, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday, after Donald Trump said Xi appeared to like the rewording.

The US president announced on Tuesday that his administration would rename AI as “super intelligence”, or SI, in official communications.

“Artificial intelligence technologies are continuously developing, all parties can strengthen exchanges, discuss in-depth and seek consensus in light of the latest situation,” said a statement from an unidentified Chinese ministry spokesperson.

When it comes to AI, Xi has taken a more measured tone than Trump and said the technology must develop under human control.