By Sen. Ben Ray Luján
WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., joined U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and 15 colleagues in calling on President Donald Trump to negotiate a formal agreement between the U.S. and China on guardrails and global standards for the development, testing, and use of frontier Artificial Intelligence models with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The lawmakers also urged Trump to consider enacting a mutual pause in frontier A.I. development to prevent potential cyberattacks, the development of biological weapons, and other dangerous activities that could threaten humanity.
Their letter to the president states:
“We write concerning public reporting that your administration plans to have discussions about artificial intelligence with China during the upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping currently planned for Sept. 24.
We support this dialogue and encourage you to have those discussions at the highest level.
As extraordinary as the promise of some of A.I.’s advanced capabilities are, safety incidents make clear that both national and international infrastructure is threatened by unregulated testing and release of A.I. models. It is incumbent upon both governments to discuss necessary guardrails and global standards for the development, testing, and use of A.I. in order to mitigate the risks of unfettered advancement.
As you prepare for the upcoming summit, we urge you to engage with President Xi directly to discuss efforts to avoid the potential harms of this technology for the safety and benefit of the world. America leads in A.I. innovation, and we must lead the world in A.I. safety and international cooperation, including by working with China to develop a formal agreement that would slow down, and potentially enact a mutual pause in, frontier A.I. development to prevent cyberattacks, the development of biological weapons, and other dangerous activities that threaten the lives of the American people and humanity writ large.”
They note specifically, “The conversations should include specific focus on the standards needed for development and testing processes, oversight and monitoring of models, enforcing human control over the use of autonomous systems, and technological verification of any agreed upon terms to ensure that an agreement is being enforced. Protecting American safety and leadership in A.I. will require international cooperation with many countries, but it must start with serious engagement by your administration and China at this summit.”
“A.I. technology is too powerful, and its risks too many, for the U.S. and China to forgo discussions on parameters around its development and use. What our two countries develop as guardrails will serve as a standard for how the technology is used worldwide. Given how quickly A.I. technology is developing and how transformative it may be, we cannot delay our pursuit of diplomatic efforts to mitigate its risks. Those efforts must start with direct engagement with China to ensure the safety and well-being of all people as A.I. innovation continues,” the lawmakers conclude.
