Trump's no ‘guardrails’ to Xi ‘human control’: Why AI is at the heart of US-China rivalry

While US President Trump said he had no intention of negotiating limits on AI development, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasised in his opening address at the White House during US state visit on Thursday that the two superpowers — US and China — have a responsibility to ensure that humans always operate AI.

“We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure that a development of AI is always under human control and serves the well being of the people,” the Chinese leader said.

Xi's comments came days after Trump dismissed claims that AI will “destroy the world” as “hoax.”

During his speech at the UN General Assembly, President Trump reiterated that his administration "will only encourage super intelligence... the United States leads the world in super intelligence and will continue to do so safely and responsibly.”

In a social media post on Thursday, Trump said he wants to keep AI “exactly where it is,” suggesting he would stand by his longstanding opposition to guardrails.

"A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China’s position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ! President DJT," he wrote on TRUTH Social.

Why AI is at the heart of US-China rivalry

AI, its capabilities and safety came into focus as tech giants continue to develop advance artificial intelligence, while flagging risks posed by AI to humanity.

AI industry leaders have been split over how fast companies should develop the increasingly powerful technology, as Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk call for a coordinated slowdown.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg appeared ​to break away from other AI leaders, favouring market-led safeguards, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismissed the need for new regulations.

At the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Amodei said, according to Reuters, that if managed poorly, he believed "AI could be ​a risk to humanity as a whole."

"For all the differences of the people in this room, we must put aside those differences in order to confront this global opportunity and global threat that is ⁠being presented to us at the same time. No leader, no company and no nation can manage this alone," Amodei said.

Meanwhile, Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue highlighted the role of AI tools in defending against cyberattacks, citing an incident in which US OpenAI's AI agents breached Hugging Face's ​infrastructure after escaping their testing environment

2. US vs China: Who'll win?

Trump has increasingly framed China as a "competitor" in the AI race. Back in 2025, Trump had said, “...we're here today because we believe that America's destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in every technology, and that includes being the world's number-one superpower in artificial intelligence. And we are way ahead of China, I have to say...”

"...We're leading China in AI by a lot," Trump had said in July this year. '"Whoever wins AI...WINS...that group wins!," he said recently.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping cast Beijing as the champion of a new global AI order. According to a report in July, Chinese state media increasingly portrayed Beijing's AI strategy as a response to what it calls a US-led attempt to erect an "AI Iron Curtain."

According to Aljazeera's analysis, the US dominates AI spending and computing power, but China is ahead in research and closing the gap on advanced models.

Analysts told CBS News earlier that mutual distrust between the US and China, as much as the technology itself, could lead humanity "off a cliff."

3. Pax Silica

Last year, Washington launched the Pax Silica initiative aimed at securing supply chains for AI models, semiconductors and critical minerals, amid a fierce technology rivalry with ​Beijing. India joined the group in February.

In July, ​Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a rival "World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization", promoting his country's open-weight technology as a challenge to US influence over the fast-moving sector.

Kazakhstan is the only country so far known to have joined both initiatives, setting off alarm bells in Washington, Reuters reported in August.

4. AI explicitly linked to national security

The US government has described AI as a technology with implications not just for the economy but also for national security and military capabilities.

In January 2025, the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said advanced AI capabilities depend on supercomputing and advanced semiconductors and can improve military decision-making, planning and logistics. This was cited as a reason for restricting China's access to advanced chips.

5. US restricted China’s ability to access advanced semiconductors

Earlier, the US has restricted China’s ability to access advanced semiconductors for training AI models, and criticized Chinese companies for allegedly taking part in illicit distillation of American AI capabilities.

Semiconductors are strategic and uniquely important electronic devices. They are fundamental to most industrial and national security activities and serve as essential building blocks of other technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the US Congress, since 2018, the US government has sought to strengthen US export controls of advanced semiconductors with the stated intent of both restricting PRC (China) access to the technologies and ability to produce advanced chips, and curtailing PRC access to related computing and AI applications.