China and the United States agreed to establish a channel for handling AI-related incidents and accelerate work on military crisis communications following a three-day summit between President Xi Jinping and President Trump in Washington, the two governments said Saturday. They also agreed to continue cooperating through a Board of Trade focused on selected bilateral issues. The White House said the board began operating this week.
The summit produced no major breakthroughs, but analysts said the steps toward greater cooperation were important because they established working groups that could help prevent disputes from escalating. Xi returned to Beijing on Saturday, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Trump displayed unusual warmth toward Xi, despite having escalated a trade war with China the previous year that had global repercussions.
The two sides agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on strengthening crisis communications and preventing crises between the two militaries, China's Foreign Ministry said Saturday in its readout. The one-page statement from the Chinese side was light on details. Both sides will set up a communication mechanism for artificial intelligence-related incidents, to discuss related risks and benefits, with an AI-specific dialogue scheduled for November.
The White House said the two leaders agreed on using the term "super intelligence" rather than "artificial intelligence" to describe the technology. Trump has been outspoken about his preference for the alternate term. "I call it SI because it's a much better name," he told reporters Saturday on the White House's south lawn.
"It's a much more accurate name because when you say the other, it means it's fake. Artificial means it's fake, and it's not fake." Mr. Trump also indicated that there would be limits on what the U.S. would share with China and said that Washington would not slow its AI efforts.
The "United States of America is not going to be putting on brakes," Mr. Trump told reporters outside the White House. "They want to stop our progress because we're leading China by a lot and we're going to keep it that way." He added: "I would rather not integrate because we're leading by a lot.
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