WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and China are scheduled to hold their first talks on artificial intelligence on Tuesday, with the U.S. government expected to voice concerns about Beijing's use of the rapidly emerging technology, U.S. officials said.
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The first round of talks, announced during Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing last month but with no set date, will be held in Geneva.
U.S. officials said they do not expect concrete agreements or offers of cooperation through the talks, but they do want a channel of communication about each country's views and perceptions of risks.
China has “made AI development a major national priority, and is understandably rapidly deploying capabilities not only in the military and national security sectors, but also in the civilian sector,” the US official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity as is customary.
China's efforts are often conducted in ways that “we believe undermine the national security of both the United States and our allies,” he said.
“In this regard, we would like to reiterate our concerns about the Chinese government's use of AI.”
Another U.S. official noted that while the issue is not particularly on the agenda in Geneva, the U.S. government has previously expressed concerns about potential election interference through AI.
US warning against Chinese AI
President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping agreed to begin a formal dialogue on AI during their November summit in California.
The United States will be represented in Geneva by Tarun Chhabra and Seth Senter, officials working on emerging technologies at the White House and State Department, respectively, National Security Council spokesman Adrian Watson said.
China and the United States are both rapidly developing their AI fields, and the U.S. government and its allies are increasingly wary of the capabilities available to communist authorities in Beijing.
U.S. experts are sounding the alarm over the growing ability of Chinese AI engineers to create “deepfakes” – impersonations of the real thing or the dead.
The United States, European Union, and United Kingdom are working to set regulations around AI in a way that protects individual privacy and security.
China, which is exploring its own path in artificial intelligence, attended a major conference on AI safety convened by the UK last year.
At the meeting, China and the United States joined other countries in agreeing on the need to “jointly manage the potential risks” of AI at the global level.
The United States and China are gradually increasing dialogue in an effort to ease tensions that have risen sharply in recent years.
Officials from the world's two largest economies held their latest round of talks separately last week on climate change, one area where Biden sees scope for cooperation.
However, the Biden administration is not backing down from increasing pressure on China, with a decision expected to be made on Tuesday to increase tariffs on Chinese clean energy products.
Technology has become a major area of friction as the United States restricts exports of advanced semiconductors to China and threatens to ban the hit video-sharing app TikTok unless its Chinese owner sells it.
TikTok last week agreed to start labeling AI-generated content across multiple platforms to address concerns about the prevalence of deepfakes.
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