US, Chinese visions for AI regulation differ sharply at UN meeting
President Donald Trump vowed to stand against global AI security efforts at the U.N. this week, amid growing calls for world leaders to take action.
The United States and China presented starkly opposing views on international AI safety during a United Nations General Assembly Security Council meeting on Wednesday. American officials, including White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, argued against expanded regulation of the technology.
Kratsios staunchly opposed the creation of a global governance system for AI development, emphasizing that the U.S. remains committed to diplomacy and dialogue while advocating for the preservation of national sovereignty in governing AI. Kratsios stressed that countries should not "abdicate responsibility to international bodies" when it comes to regulating AI.
China's U.N. representative, Fu Cong, however, expressed openness to restrictions on AI and called for closer global collaboration on AI safeguards. Fu emphasized the need to enhance alignment and coordination of AI development strategies, governance, and technical standards, and proposed forming a consensus-based global governance framework to build institutional guardrails that preserve international peace and security.
Fu also seemed to indirectly criticize the U.S., warning that a "us-versus-them" dynamic could serve the interests of major powers seeking to maintain their technological edge through monopolies and digital hegemony.
President Donald Trump's assertion on Tuesday that U.S. AI efforts were "leading now over China by a lot and everyone else" further highlighted the differing perspectives on AI regulation. On a related note, several prominent figures in the American tech industry, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have called for international guardrails for AI development.
Altman proposed the need for a mechanism to create complementary national and international frontier AI standards, aligning with a proposal his company released on Monday. Amodei echoed this sentiment, stressing the importance of international collaboration to ensure that the industry and the world can proceed at a safe pace, keeping up with AI capabilities.
Written by urgent.news from Politico EU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
