US, Chinese officials to meet to discuss AI risks

American and Chinese officials will meet in Geneva on Tuesday to discuss risks associated with advanced artificial intelligence (AI), according to senior administration officials. 

The bilateral talks will be “an exchange of views on the technical risks of AI” and will offer “an opportunity to directly communicate respective areas of concern,” an official told reporters on a call Friday.

The Biden administration plans to raise concerns about Beijing’s use of AI in the military and national security sectors “in ways that we believe undermines both U.S. and allied national security,” they said. 

“To be very clear, our talks with Beijing are not focused on promoting any form of technical collaboration or cooperating on frontier research in any matter,” the official said. “And our technology protection policies are not up for negotiation.” 

The Biden administration has restricted the export of AI chips to China and is reportedly considering restricting China and other foreign adversaries’ access to the software behind advanced AI models, according to Reuters.

However, the official added, “We do think it is worth opening a channel for communication on these issues.”

The upcoming talks are a product of a November meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which they agreed to bring together experts to discuss AI risks and safety.

The meeting between the leaders outside San Francisco last fall came in the wake of a period of icy relations between the two superpowers. Beyond teeing up the AI talks, Biden and Xi also agreed to restore military-to-military communications at the time, a significant breakthrough for the adversaries.