Trump has no ‘handrails’ against ‘human control’ Xi: Why artificial intelligence is at the heart of US-China rivalry | Today’s news

While US President Trump has said he has no intention of negotiating limits on the development of artificial intelligence, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed in his opening remarks at the White House during a state visit to the US on Thursday that the two superpowers – the US and China – have a responsibility to ensure that artificial intelligence is always operated by humans.

“We have the ability and responsibility to develop and manage AI forever, and to ensure that AI development is always under human control and serves the well-being of humans,” Chinese leader he said.

Xi made the comments days after Trump dismissed claims that artificial intelligence will “destroy the world” as “hoax.”

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During his address to the UN General Assembly, President Trump reiterated that his administration “will only support superintelligence… The United States leads the world in superintelligence and will continue to do so safely and responsibly.”

In a social media post on Thursday, Trump said he wanted to keep AI “right where it is” and signaled he would stand by his longstanding opposition to the railings.

“Big day with Chinese President Xi. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That’s China’s position too. DOJ is our gatekeeper! President DJT,” he wrote on TRUTH Social.

Why AI is at the heart of the US-China rivalry

Artificial intelligence, its capabilities and security have come under the spotlight as tech giants continue to develop advanced artificial intelligence while highlighting the risks AI poses to humanity.

Artificial intelligence leaders are divided over how quickly companies should develop increasingly powerful technology, with Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk calling for a coordinated slowdown.

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg appeared to distance himself from other AI leaders in favor of market-led safeguards, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed the need for new regulations.

At the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Amodei said, according to Reuters, that if mismanaged, he believed “AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole”.

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“Despite all the differences among the people in this room, we must put those differences aside to face this global opportunity and global threat that is before us at the same time. No leader, no society and no nation can do it alone,” Amodei said.

Meanwhile, Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue highlighted the role of AI tools in defending against cyber attacks, citing an incident where US OpenAI AI agents breached Hugging Face’s infrastructure after escaping from a test environment.

2. USA vs China: Who will win?

Trump increasingly refers to China as a “competitor” in the AI ​​race. In 2025, Trump he said, “…we are here today because we believe that America’s destiny is to dominate every industry and be first in every technology, and that includes being the world’s number one superpower in artificial intelligence. And I have to say, we are way ahead of China…”

“…We’re way ahead of China in AI,” Trump he said this July. “Whoever wins the AI…WINS…this group wins!” he said recently.

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Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has cast Beijing as the champion of the new AI global order. According to a report in July, Chinese state media increasingly portrayed Beijing’s AI strategy as a response to what it calls a US-led attempt to erect an “Iron Curtain on AI.”

According to Aljazeera’s analysis, the US dominates spending on artificial intelligence and computing power, but China is ahead in research and closing the gap in advanced models.

Analysts previously told CBS News that mutual mistrust between the US and China, as well as technology itself, could lead humanity “off a cliff.”

3. Pax Silica

Last year, Washington launched the Pax Silica initiative to secure supply chains for artificial intelligence models, semiconductors and critical minerals, amid a bitter technology rivalry with Beijing. India joined the group in February.

In July, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a rival “World Organization for Artificial Intelligence Cooperation” promoting his country’s open-weight technology as a challenge to American influence in the fast-growing sector.

Kazakhstan is so far the only country known to have joined both initiatives, raising the alarm in Washington, Reuters reported in August.

4. AI explicitly linked to national security

The US government has described AI as a technology with implications not only for the economy, but also for national security and military capabilities.

In January 2025, the US Department of Industry and Security (BIS), said advanced AI capabilities rely on supercomputers and advanced semiconductors and can improve military decision-making, planning, and logistics. This has been cited as a reason for limiting China’s access to advanced chips.

5. The US has restricted China’s access to advanced semiconductors

The US has previously restricted China’s access to advanced semiconductors for training artificial intelligence models and criticized Chinese companies for allegedly engaging in the illegal distillation of US AI capabilities.

Semiconductors are strategic and uniquely important electronic devices. They are essential to most industrial and national security activities and serve as the basic building blocks of other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

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According to US CongressSince 2018, the U.S. government has sought to strengthen controls on U.S. advanced semiconductor exports with the stated intention of both limiting the PRC’s (China) access to technology and the ability to manufacture advanced chips, and to limit the PRC’s access to related computing and AI applications.