Ex-White House 'AI czar' says US, China could find AI common ground despite fierce rivalry
Sacks warned Chinese AI models could have advanced cyber capabilities within six months
Former White House ‘AI czar’ identifies ‘real issue’ with US-China AI competition
Former White House ‘AI czar’ David Sacks discusses President Donald Trump’s upcoming China trip, where he is expected to talk about AI with Chinese President Xi Jinping on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Former White House AI czar David Sacks predicted potential outcomes of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two leaders prepare to discuss artificial intelligence.
Sacks assessed the state of the intensifying AI arms race on "The Claman Countdown" Monday as China and the U.S. emerge as fierce competitors on the global stage.
"I do think that there are things that may be in our common interest, and it's worthwhile to explore having those conversations," he said.
"The fact is we have to still protect from against each other. So I think it's going to be a little bit limited in terms of what we can achieve there."
BEIJING IS QUIETLY DICTATING THE TRADE WAR’S NEXT MOVES AS TRUMP AND XI PREPARE TO MEET
US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP / Getty Images)
Sacks' comments follow the release of Anthropic’s Mythos, a model that has raised widespread worry over its capability to identify decades-old security vulnerabilities.
Sacks said the U.S. and China could potentially reach an agreement on new cyber standards during this week’s meeting, noting that neither country wants "rogue actors" to use AI models for dangerous purposes.
He also warned that the U.S. must take proactive defensive measures to ensure new AI models do not exploit existing vulnerabilities.
WHITE HOUSE MEETS AI FIRM ANTHROPIC AMID POLITICAL TENSIONS, PENTAGON DISPUTE
"We need to take steps now to harden our systems and scan our code bases to find latent vulnerabilities and patch them," the former ‘AI czar’ said.
AI assistant apps on a smartphone — OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
Sacks also downplayed concerns about AI, arguing there is no need for strong federal regulation of the technology, while cautioning that China’s advancing cyber capabilities remain a serious concern.
"There's been this debate about whether we needed an FDA for AI. That would be solving a problem I don’t think we have," he told FOX Business.
"The real issue is not what the American labs do. It's the fact that Chinese models and other models that other actors could train are gonna have advanced cyber capabilities within the next six months or so."
Sacks cited previous success in AI discussions with China, including a late 2024 summit between former President Joe Biden and Jinping, where both countries agreed to keep AI away from nuclear weapons systems.
U.S. President Joe Biden escorts Chinese President Xi Jinping to his car to bid farewell after their talks in the Filoli Estate in the U.S. state of California, Nov. 15, 2023. (Photo by Li Xueren/Xinhua via Getty Images / Getty Images)
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
The former ‘AI czar’ said that while the U.S. and China remain locked in a highly competitive race for AI dominance, dialogue about the technology is a step in the right direction.
"I think the point here is for the two sides to start talking, to establish an initial dialogue and just to see how the Chinese are thinking about this," Sacks said.
