Rifts ahead of US-China talks on AI safety

The US proposed a superpower AI safety mechanism in talks with top Chinese economic officials, but analysts voiced skepticism that Washington and Beijing would reach an accommodation, on this or their countless other disputes. US and Chinese leaders have largely maintained positive rhetoric towards one another recently, and the countries have stepped back from the all-out trade war that characterized their ties a year ago. But their differences are both broad and deep — including over technology, trade, and Taiwan.

As a result, “the baseline expectation” among Chinese analysts is merely for “a prolongation” of the countries’ truce at this week’s leaders’ summit, one scholar noted, while Goldman Sachs said investors it surveyed expected the talks to be “largely symbolic.”