At Trump's State Dinner, Xi Says AI Must Stay 'Under Human Control'

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threw a lavish state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday night, and the guest list told the story of what both men wanted to talk about. Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, AMD's Lisa Su and Apple's Tim Cook were seated with the two presidential couples in the East Room, and OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google cofounder Sergey Brin and Microsoft's Satya Nadella were also on the list.

Xi used his toast to press a message on artificial intelligence. Both countries, he said, have "the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people." He urged Washington and Beijing to act "as responsible major countries."

Trump kept his remarks warmer and vaguer. "President Xi and I both understand we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we've never gotten along better," he said. He closed with a toast: "May all of our people know a future of harmony, peace and success." Xi answered that Trump had pledged to make America great again while China was committed to "great national rejuvenation," and said the two goals "can surely be mutually reinforcing."

A Chinese readout of the leaders' earlier talks said Xi told Trump the two countries "may have competition, but they may cooperate even more" on AI, and that they could "jointly prevent the misuse and abuse of AI." The readout said Trump agreed the sides should "maintain dialogue and strengthen cooperation on AI." The U.S. had not issued its own readout by Friday morning. The talks follow weekend meetings in which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng discussed an AI channel for incidents "up to a national security level," which some have compared to the Cold War hotline between Washington and Moscow.

"It appears we ended up with an intent to continue dialogue, along with a hotline of some sort for emergencies," Aalok Mehta, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC. On the harder issues, there was little to show. Xi urged Trump to take the "correct position" on Taiwan, where Trump has paused a major weapons package, and no trade agreement was announced. U.S. export controls on advanced Nvidia chips remain a sticking point.

The evening also had the showmanship Trump enjoys. He went "off script" to invite guests to walk through a curtain onto the construction site of his new White House ballroom, which he said is a year from completion. He gave Xi an eagle statue he said he designed "in personal collaboration with Melania and myself." Guests ate sesame-crusted sea bass served on Reagan-era red china. First lady Melania Trump wore a tuxedo-style outfit and Peng Liyuan wore a red gown.

The celebration came as the White House was still fighting a court battle over press access, and CNN said some of its reporters were turned away from the arrivals. Xi and his wife were scheduled to have tea with the Trumps in the Red Room on Friday and tour the National Archives before leaving Washington. In 2015, as a candidate, Trump had mocked Barack Obama's state dinner for Xi and said he would "just take them to McDonald's."