Musk pitches mutual AI model checks ahead of Trump-Xi talks

Ahead of next week's meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, some tech leaders have called for the two countries to cooperate on AI. Elon Musk proposed that top firms from each country could evaluate one another's models before release, while OpenAI's CEO suggested Xi and Trump could win the Nobel Peace Prize for a one-page AI deal.

The optimism faces a starkly different view from those who follow Beijing closely. Beijing's former US envoy said Tuesday that US-China ties are plagued by lack of mutual trust, and a China scholar argued that Beijing is "unlikely to take American calls for restraint seriously" before Washington regulates its own tech. The scholar said Beijing views such rhetoric as calculated to constrain China, and a DeepSeek engineer likened US "pacing" calls to Nazi Germany acquiring atomic weapons before the Allies.

Whether any meaningful AI agreement emerges from the meeting next week likely hinges on whether Washington first moves to regulate its own technology, the precondition the China scholar identified. For US and Chinese AI lab leaders who have called for cooperation, the gap between their proposals and Beijing's stated skepticism appears to be the central obstacle.