Rep. Ro Khanna has asked a US intelligence agency and Chinese AI companies including DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI to assess how they would respond if an AI laboratory lost control of its systems. The requests form part of his push for a US-China treaty on frontier AI risks, according to The Verge.
Requests for safeguards and inspections
Khanna wants the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to evaluate the US response to a loss-of-control incident and examine how China assesses catastrophic AI risks. He also asked the companies for information about work on superintelligence and recursive self-improvement, along with safeguards and emergency shutdown mechanisms.
A proposed treaty faces verification hurdles
The congressman ultimately supports banning recursive self-improvement and monitoring frontier AI laboratories through a bilateral agreement. His proposal would also allow inspections by a nongovernmental body. In the shorter term, he is seeking a working group of US and Chinese experts to develop safety recommendations and ways to check compliance.
Companies and governments have not committed
The Verge reported that DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and the intelligence office had not immediately responded to requests for comment. Khanna acknowledged that the Chinese companies might not answer fully and said they had not responded to an earlier request to slow development alongside OpenAI and Anthropic.
The AI race complicates cooperation
Khanna criticized both governments for lacking urgency and questioned whether technology companies motivated by profit should define safety rules. The proposal follows a recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the source describes a treaty banning self-improving systems as unlikely in the near term. Some US lawmakers have also expressed doubts that China would honor such an agreement.
AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Source: Will Chinese AI companies slow down? A top House Democrat wants answers
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