(Bloomberg) -- US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed Saturday that neither of their nations would turn over control of nuclear weapons to artificial intelligence programs, the White House said Saturday.
“It’s an important statement about the intersection of artificial intelligence and nuclear doctrine, and it is a reflection of how, even with the competition between the US and the PRC, we could work on a responsible basis to manage risk in vital areas,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters following the meeting, referring to an acronym for China’s formal name.
The agreement was not borne out of concern that either country was imminently going to hand over control of nuclear weapons to AI, but rather an acknowledgment that the two nuclear powers were leaders in the emerging technology, Sullivan said.
“A good place to start is with the straightforward proposition that there should be human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons,” he said.
The agreement came during what is expected to be the last meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima. It comes despite what the White House acknowledged was continuing differences over export controls the US has implemented on high-end semiconductors critical for a variety of uses, including AI development.
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