GENEVA — Top envoys from the U.S. and China huddled in closed-door talks in Geneva on Tuesday to discuss ways to ensure that emerging artificial intelligence technologies don't become existential risks.
The talks, which Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to launch in last 2023, are meant to open up bilateral dialogue between the world's two biggest economies — and increasingly, geopolitical rivals — on a fast-moving technology that already has consequences for trade, lifestyles, culture, politics, national security and defense and much more.
U.S. technology experts say the meeting — led on the American side by high-level White House and State Department officials — could offer a glimpse into Beijing's thinking about AI amid a generally tight-lipped Chinese approach to the technology.
Co-founder Jason Glassberg of Casaba Security in Redmond, Washington, an expert on new and emerging threats posed by AI, handicapped the meeting as a get-to-know-you that will likely yield few concrete results, but get the two sides talking.
''What's most important right now is that both sides realize they each have a lot to lose if AI becomes weaponized or abused,'' Glassberg said in an e-mail. ''All parties involved are equally at risk. Right now, one of the biggest areas of risk is with deepfakes, particularly for use in disinformation campaigns.''
''This is just as big of a risk for the PRC as it is for the U.S. government,'' he added, referring to the People's Republic of China.
''It's vitally important that the United States and China begin frank discussions about how to improve AI safety," said Paul Scharre, an AI expert at the Center for New American Security think tank. "The stakes are high and the consequences for AI-related accidents could be severe. "
He noted that the United States pledged in 2022 to always maintain a human in the loop for nuclear weapons use. But China's military has not done the same.
