U.S. and China plan mid-September AI safety talks on risks and cyber threats

The final agenda and participants remain in flux, the sources cautioned.

The talks will be led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the U.S. side, sources briefed on the discussions said.

BEIJING — The U.S. and China are gearing up to discuss AI safety risks during a dialogue planned for mid-September, two sources briefed on the discussions told Reuters, as rapidly advancing frontier AI capabilities reach a global tipping point. The talks, the first official bilateral discussions devoted exclusively to AI between the U.S. and China since U.S. President Donald Trump took office for a second time, will be led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the U.S. side, the sources, who were briefed on the planning, said on condition of anonymity. Reuters is reporting the tentative mid-September period for the first time. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson said no meeting is planned. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet on September 24 during a summit in Washington. The U.S. wants to discuss cooperation on monitoring AI-directed cyberattacks, and has floated a proposal to ask U.S. and Chinese AI labs to "police themselves" and share information to prevent AI-linked cyberattacks, one of the sources said on condition of anonymity. Nearly 700 rogue AI agents built o