Questions abound about how US-China 'notification mechanism' on AI will work as summit gets underway

Following a weekend of meetings with Chinese officials, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled the idea of an AI "notification mechanism" that could lead to a shared vision of the technology between the largest economies in the world.

But since Sunday's announcement, questions have emerged about what this new mechanism would mean in practice — if it even comes to pass — as China has been silent on embracing the idea.

"Neither side trusts each other, and so they're making these sort of general symbolic promises that look good but have no details behind them," James Lewis of the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.

He added that any increased communication is a good thing, but every indication is that this will fall short of a "hotline" that serves as a direct connection between the two governments.

Instead, he said, the proposal "sounds pretty informal and I don't think that there's a desire right now to go beyond that."

Yet this effort at increased communication has emerged as the most likely area of agreement on artificial intelligence in the summit, which continues through Friday and will also feature talks on trade, the war in Iran, and many other issues.

Both the US and China have shown little interest in more wide-ranging moves on AI, such as regulating frontier models. It was a position that President Trump underlined Thursday morning when he posted that he wants to leave the overall sector "exactly where it is [and] that is China's position also."

Trump formally welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the US on Wednesday evening with an arrival ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

The ceremony, according to the White House, featured a 100 foot-long red carpet, the United States Air Force Band, and a flyover from two B1 flyovers, among other touches.

A report in Politico on Tuesday described the notification system as little more than an informal plan to stay in touch, after Bessent described it slightly differently in an appearance on CNBC, calling it a "line so that we have constant communications, especially in the event of some kind of an incident."

Either way, it appeared far short of past direct forms of government-to-government communication, such as the Moscow–Washington hotline, which facilitated communication during the Cold War and was established by a presidential action in 1963.

Bessent suggested that discussion this week would be focused toward further face-to-face talks at the "USA-China AI dialogues" set for November in Shenzhen, in southeastern China.