Two days before he goes on to welcome Xi Jinping to the White House, Donald Trump stood before the UN general assembly (UNGA), and rejected what he called a 'globalist scheme to control [AI]', and rebranded the tech for US official purposes as 'superintelligence'. While he was at it, he also declared that 'to the victor go the spoils', touting an oil deal with Venezuela after he launched a military operation in January, removing the country's president Nicolas Maduro.

Trump dismissed any warning of catastrophe as the same voices who once predicted doom from the 'hoax' of global warming. It was a revealing prelude. The US president will now be asking Beijing to talk about AI safety in Washington, after having just refused to accept any shared rules for it in New York.

Today's scheduled summit is Xi's reciprocal call after Trump travelled to Beijing in May, and will be their second meeting this year. Managing frontier AI risk and protecting IP top the agenda. The telling detail is 'who asked'. China's state media say the US pressed for the talks because it fears Beijing is gaining the upper hand, a worry sharpened after China signed AI partnerships with 28 mostly developing nations in Shanghai in July to establish the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico).

Link: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/us-china-ai-talks-a-two-power-bargain-that-could-leave-the-world-with-no-say/articleshow/134443262.cms