U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent says he will propose to China a mechanism for reporting AI incidents

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said on Axios that he plans to propose to China the establishment of an AI incident notification process and believes Beijing will agree. He had discussed AI safety with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng before President Xi's state visit last month, including the proposal to establish a communication channel for AI incidents, covering risks such as out-of-control AI agents and non-state actors using the technology to carry out cyber or biological threats. Bessent said the Chinese side had previously not been aware of the capabilities of its open-source models, and alleged that Kimi had sent back information on the PLA's weapons program to Anthropic during distillation. He did not provide specific details or timing; this statement is Bessent's allegation, and the available materials do not provide public confirmation from Anthropic regarding the described incident. He said these Chinese models are about 80% to 90% as capable as U.S. models, yet lack guardrails and can be exported anywhere in the world. Bessent also said the U.S. pursues safe acceleration, that government model review is currently voluntary, but reserves the right to intervene if labs ignore safety concerns, and emphasized that labs themselves must bear responsibility; when asked about AI executives' concerns about losing control of their models, he responded that they should slow down. Background supplement: The White House's September 25 and China's Foreign Ministry's September 26 outcome documents already announced that both sides agreed to establish bilateral communication channels for related incidents; the proposal wording in the report comes from the interviewee. The official documents do not specify the coordinating agencies or notification thresholds, so it cannot be confirmed from them that the channel is already operational.