A new round of US-China dialogue on the risks of artificial intelligence, even just for the sake of dialogue, will be important for furthering US national security, according to former senior US officials responsible for China affairs.
The assessment comes after the world’s two leading AI superpowers agreed to a new round of intergovernmental talks on AI safety following the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing in May, though few details about the dialogue have been announced.
Jeannette Chu, one of the longest-serving US diplomats in China who was senior export control attache at the US embassy in Beijing between 2005 and 2010, said that dialogue with Chinese officials on the fast-moving technology should be seen as furthering “self-preservation from a national security standpoint” for the US.
“It’s really important that we keep talking because it’s … how we get visibility into where China is going [with AI], how are they doing it, what are their successes and failures,” she said at an Asia Society event in San Francisco on Thursday.
“Do you want to be shut out of what they’re doing … [so] you’re cutting yourself off from the ability … to understand [their] vulnerabilities, much less how to exploit it?”
High-level concerns over AI risks have heightened in both the US and China after the release of US AI company Anthropic’s Mythos model in April, which showed unprecedented cyberattack capabilities.