Microsoft AI chief urges guardrails as White House resists broad regulation

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman are among the tech world's elite expected to join Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner at the White House next week, according to a US official. The event is anticipated to be highly popular, with attendees including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla's Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, and Google's Sundar Pichai.

The presence of these influential figures signals the central role artificial intelligence (AI) will play in the upcoming talks between the two world powers, as both the US and China vie for dominance in the AI race. In the US, there is a prevailing belief that the nation's leading AI developers—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta—must continue their innovation without restraint, fearing China could overtake them.

China, historically regarded as lagging behind the US in cutting-edge AI, has made significant strides in recent years. The US has attempted to curb China's progress through export controls on the advanced chips essential for advanced AI, restricting access to top-tier US semiconductors like those manufactured by Nvidia. Despite their ongoing rivalry, there is still a possibility that the two superpowers may reach an agreement on AI-related matters during their meeting in Washington.

However, substantial measures such as limiting development or establishing global safeguards are unlikely to be agreed upon. Calls for such safeguards have gained momentum due to concerns about the potential dangers AI poses to humanity. Jacob Coxon, a former AI researcher at Anthropic, recently raised alarms, warning that those developing the technology are "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, has since called for a more cautious approach and a potential slowdown in AI development. Sam Altman and Elon Musk have also expressed support for this viewpoint, as has DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, who has advocated for a US-led global regulatory body for AI. President Donald Trump has recently dismissed AI concerns as a hoax and encouraged American AI companies to keep advancing to maintain their edge over China.

While Chinese policymakers have focused more on immediate risks, such as deepfakes and child safety, the country's spy agency has recently warned that AI could threaten national security.