President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not appear to make an AI agreement amid technology concerns, but both sides said they’ll continue a dialog about the technology.
Trump says he won’t ‘stifle growth’ of AI but will ‘watch it closely’
At the United Nations General Assembly, President Donald Trump said he won’t stifle growth of artificial intelligence, saying “whoever wins AI” wins.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were expected to talk about AI this week at the U.S.-China Summit, and Trump said they agreed on one thing: they both like the idea of changing its name.
“I say this that superintelligence, SI, I don’t call it AI anymore,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Sept. 26, later adding, “we had a big talk on SI, and he likes the idea of changing the name to SI, too.”
The Chinese leader met with Trump at the White House this week for a summit, where AI was expected to be among a list of topics that the leaders would address. In remarks on Sept. 24 during the visit, Xi stressed that the U.S. and China must “ensure that the development of AI is always under human control.” It does not appear that the two leaders came to any breakthrough agreement on the technology.
However, both countries announced that they had agreed to reduce tariffs on $30 billion of goods and that they would continue a dialog about AI.
The tariff reductions would apply to U.S. exports such as agricultural goods, wood and cosmetics, as well as U.S. imports including small appliances, toys and decorations, a White House statement said Friday.
“The two countries reached consensus on recommendations for more favorable tariff treatment for $30 billion of non-sensitive goods in each direction,” the White House said.
On artificial intelligence, the two sides agreed to hold a dialogue on the technology’s risks and benefits, with the next round of discussions set for November, and to set up a communication channel for AI-related incidents, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the White House said.
Trump told the reporters on Saturday that the “United States of America is not going to be putting on brakes,” despite recent alarms about AI outpacing human intelligence and threatening humanity. Lawmakers on Capital Hill have considered regulations, but Trump has remained a fierce defender of the technology. A week before Xi’s visit, political opposites, democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and conservative Trump ally Steve Bannon, both spoke at the same Washington, D.C., event and suggested that Trump make efforts during the meeting with China to slow AI development.
“They want to stop our progress because we’re leading China by a lot, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Trump told reporters. “We didn’t spend that much time talking about it. I would rather not integrate because we’re leading by a lot. When you’re leading, you don’t open it up to each other.”
During Xi’s visit, the president and first lady Melania Trump hosted a lavish state dinner for the Chinese leaders, and AI technology leaders were among the guests. Some notable names included:
Trump estimated the the U.S. is leading China in the technological development by a year or two and downplayed warnings about threats to humanity. He compared the warnings to climate change projections, telling the reporters “you’re all supposed to be dead now because of global warming.”
“I’m not looking to open it up, and we really didn’t talk much about it,” Trump said. “We did talk about the name super intelligence.”
At the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week, Trump made a similar argument, saying that the he won’t “stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution” and that the United States was leading China in the technology development. On the UN stage, Trump also said that the US would start using the term super intelligence and that AI safety warnings are a hoax.
Contributing: Reuters