Laying the groundwork for US-China AI dialogue

Over the past five years, the Brookings Institution and the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University (Tsinghua CISS) have convened teams of national security technology experts for an unofficial Track-II dialogue on artificial intelligence (AI) in national security. Through funding from the Berggruen Institute and the Minderoo Foundation, the two sides have met in neutral countries on a regular basis. These efforts have spanned two U.S. presidential administrations and sustained productive engagements despite intensifying rivalry in the U.S.-China relationship and a global pandemic. Since the beginning, the two teams have met quietly to explore if it is possible to gain a greater understanding of how each side reaches decisions on the employment of AI in national security systems and whether both sides might be able to agree on common boundaries around acceptable uses of AI in national security.