America’s top defense official has confirmed that the United States and Communist China have agreed to continue negotiations over artificial intelligence guardrails, a development that emerged from hours of closed-door discussions between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth disclosed the ongoing diplomatic effort Saturday evening while speaking to reporters at the United States Embassy in Singapore, where he wrapped up his attendance at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference.
“I think the agreement was that we should keep talking about it,” Hegseth told The Daily Signal when asked whether the two global powers had made progress toward mutually agreed AI restrictions during the Beijing summit.
The conversations between Trump and Xi specifically addressed how to prevent bad actors from exploiting the most powerful AI models. Among the concerns discussed was Anthropic’s Mythos, an advanced AI system that has exposed major software security vulnerabilities.
Hegseth, who accompanied President Trump on his recent trip to Beijing, said he listened to hours of conversations about U.S.-China relations during the visit. The discussions highlighted what he described as a fundamental tension at the heart of American AI policy.
“You wanna be able to set guardrails,” Hegseth explained. “Given the innovation capabilities of the United States of America, we also wanna maintain an advantage, and ensure that we can utilize that advantage responsibly as well.”
“It’s kind of emblematic of that competing tension,” he added.
The secretary made clear that while diplomacy has its place, American dominance in artificial intelligence remains the priority. The War Department, he said, is working aggressively to ensure the United States stays ahead of its competitors.
“Guardrail conversations are productive between two strong countries,” Hegseth said, “but it’s also our job to run the fastest, and certainly at the War Department, we’re trying to do everything we can to maintain that.”
