Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping wrapped up their Washington summit on Friday, facing criticism that they had squandered an opportunity to pause their countries’ artificial intelligence (AI) arms race. The three-day state visit emphasised pageantry and personal rapport rather than substantial agreements. The US president and Xi discussed the wars in Iran and Ukraine and the status of Taiwan.
Their biggest policy announcement was a modest two-month extension of a trade truce. But despite the presence of top tech executives at a White House state dinner on Thursday night, Trump and Xi failed to deliver the AI breakthrough that some experts and foreign governments had hoped for amid warnings that the technology could pose an existential threat to humanity. But he [Trump] didn’t want to; he has no interest in doing that.” It was the first visit to the White House by a Chinese president in more than a decade and Xi’s second state visit to the US.
Three days of pomp and circumstance culminated on Friday with Trump and Xi drinking tea. Trump said the summit had produced great strides and that “our farmers are going to be happy,” but did not provide details. The pair then went to the National Archives, where Trump and Xi looked at the original Declaration of Independence, the constitution and Bill of Rights.
Trump told reporters they were comparing China’s documents to America’s founding documents. So there’s a little difference between 6,000 and 250. But we’re very proud of our 250.” On Thursday, Xi acknowledged that the US and China have the “responsibility to develop and manage AI for good” and “ensure that the development of AI is always under human control”.
China aims to have next-generation smart terminals and AI agents reach more than 90% penetration by 2030. But Trump – who has repeatedly said the US must forge ahead to maintain its lead over China – appeared more focused on his push to rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence”, later claiming on social media that Xi “seems to like” the term without divulging the substance of their discussions. Later Trump hosted a black-tie state dinner attended by titans of the tech industry.
Bernie Sanders, an independent senator of Vermont, used social media to label a photo of Trump and Xi’s table with guests’ net worth: Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla ($928bn), Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices ($3.5bn), Jensen Huang of Nvidia ($186bn) and Tim Cook of Apple ($3.1bn). Sanders commented: “A government of, by and for the billionaire class.” But their counterparts in the Chinese tech industry were not present and there was little sign of either country making even a symbolic gesture to apply the brakes. Khanna commented: “Trump didn’t have to have some groundbreaking treaty like Reagan and Gorbachev did [on nuclear weapons].
Extract — continue reading at the source.
