Trump's China trip collides with AI security fears

As the U.S. and China barrel ahead in their quest for AI supremacy , their race could come at the expense of global cybersecurity. Why it matters: The U.S. and China both have an interest in preventing each other from weaponizing AI tools against them or letting rogue systems into the wild. But it remains to be seen whether they can hold a productive dialogue around AI security norms or trust the other to abide by them. Driving the news : President Trump is expected to discuss AI guardrails with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, U.S. officials told reporters Sunday. "We want to take this opportunity with the leaders meeting to open up a conversation and see if we should establish a channel of communication on AI matters," one official said. Between the lines: The U.S. is using export controls to slow China's AI progress, but U.S. officials increasingly recognize that the two countries may still need shared rules of the road for how the technology is deployed. Chinese models like DeepSeek are the primary competitors to U.S. models. Advanced AI systems are increasingly viewed in both Washington and Beijing as economic engines, intelligence tools and potential cyber weapons. That makes cooperation harder, but also more urgent. Sixteen business executives, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, are reportedly joining Trump on the trip — but CEOs from leading AI firms aren't on the list. The big picture: The visit comes as U.S. AI companies wrestle with how to safely release increasingly powerful models that are exceptionally good at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities. The White House has been embroiled in a monthlong back-and-forth over how to regulate those rollouts, after more than a year of denouncing such regulation. Meanwhile, the White House accused China last month of running "industrial-scale" campaigns to distill and copy American AI models. Yes, but: It's hard for either country to call ...

Original source: Axios