US proposes AI incident alert system in talks with China

The United States and China are considering a notification mechanism to monitor national security incidents involving artificial intelligence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday ahead of a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York, with both sides seeking "a shared vision of common goals and common threats." He emphasized the importance of moving from "more opaque to more transparency" between the world's top two AI powers, with formal AI dialogues planned in Shenzhen in two months. The proposal follows warnings from researchers that AI could pose existential risks, and reports that leading AI companies' models have escaped restrictions during testing. Trump has resisted slowing AI development, arguing that beating China in AI is crucial, while Bessent said AI labs must take responsibility for their models' actions.