Cutting edge applications of artificial intelligence are seen on display at the Artificial Intelligence Pavilion of Zhangjiang Future Park during a state organized media tour in Shanghai, China, June 18, 2021. gettyimagesbank-TNS

Silicon Valley leaders keep painting artificial intelligence doomsday scenarios, yet they also can’t stop racing to build and sell it. They often point to China as the reason they have no choice, even as the post-ChatGPT era suggests the fiercest pressure comes from one another.

Yet the prevailing assumption is that cooperation with Beijing on frontier AI risks is impossible. It doesn’t help that China itself is often viewed as the AI safety threat.

It all culminates in a terrible spot for the rest of us. But there is a narrow opening for something better. After a two-year halt in official AI safety engagement, the U.S. and China said they would resume talks. The dialogue could come this month, Reuters reported, perhaps around the anticipated summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

What would count as success? Not trusting Beijing, and certainly not negotiating some package deal. The aim should be simpler. Each side needs enough visibility into what the other fears about AI’s capabilities, and what it is doing to manage that, to keep suspicion from becoming an excuse for reckless acceleration. And just as crucial, the talks must be insulated from the rest of the U.S.-China economic contest. Existential risks can’t become bargaining chips.

Beijing has signaled........

© The Korea Times