Escalation: Trump and Xi Set to Discuss AI

With their summit set for Thursday in Washington, senior envoys spent Sunday in New York shaping the AI agenda. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met at JPMorgan Chase’s headquarters from about 10:30 a.m. to work through artificial intelligence, tariffs, and critical minerals. The AI brief includes potential guardrails after recent security breaches involving models and coverage of both open‑ and closed‑weight systems.

Open‑weight models are systems whose core components can be downloaded and tuned by users, and Chinese offerings have been gaining traction with U.S. companies because they can be cheaper than proprietary tools. The talks are unfolding amid friction: Washington has accused Chinese AI firms of copying U.S. models and threatened sanctions, while Beijing denounces U.S. chip‑export curbs. Flows of rare‑earth magnets and other critical minerals that feed AI chips are also under review after U.S. complaints of shortfalls.

Informal expert‑level exchanges between the two countries on AI have been active this year, including meetings in Shanghai and Beijing, and previously helped set up a leaders’ pledge that decisions to use nuclear weapons remain under human control. What is new is a defined AI slot for the Trump–Xi meeting and principals already working the subtopics, positioning the leaders to decide on concrete steps next week.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources