US companies and Chinese experts engaged in secret diplomacy on AI safety

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US artificial intelligence companies OpenAI, Anthropic and Cohere have engaged in secret diplomacy with Chinese AI experts, amid shared concern about how the powerful technology may spread misinformation and threaten social cohesion. 

According to multiple people with direct knowledge, two meetings took place in Geneva in July and October last year attended by scientists and policy experts from the American AI groups, alongside representatives of Tsinghua University and other Chinese state-backed institutions.

Attendees said the talks allowed both sides to discuss the risks from the emerging technology and encourage investments in AI safety research. They added that the ultimate goal was to find a scientific path forward to safely develop more sophisticated AI technology. 

“There is no way for us to set international standards around AI safety and alignment without agreement between this set of actors,” said one person present at the talks. “And if they agree, it makes it much easier to bring the others along.” 

The previously unreported talks are a rare sign of Sino-US co-operation amid a race for supremacy between the two major powers in the area of cutting-edge technologies such as AI and quantum computing. Currently, Washington has blocked US exports of the high-performance chips made by the likes of Nvidia that are needed to develop sophisticated AI software. 

But the topic of AI safety has become a point of common interest between developers of the technology across both countries, given the potential existential risks for humanity.

The Geneva meetings were arranged with the knowledge of the White House as well as that of UK and Chinese government officials, according to a negotiator present, who declined to be named.

“China supports efforts to discuss AI governance and develop needful frameworks, norms and standards based…