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OpenAI wants US and China to govern AI
14 May 2026

OpenAI has supported the establishment of a global governance body for artificial intelligence (AI), led by the United States and China as a member.

The suggestion was made by Chris Lehane, OpenAI's Vice President of Global Affairs, ahead of President Donald Trump's crucial meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Lehane emphasized that this is an opportunity for the US to leverage its technological superiority in AI to create a safer and more resilient global system.

AI's significance beyond trade disputes
AI's impact

Lehane stressed that AI goes beyond conventional trade disputes. "AI, in some level, transcends a lot of the prevailing or traditional trade type of issues," he said during a briefing at the company's offices in Washington.

"There is an opportunity to really start to build something up globally, and have countries around the world, including China, potentially participate."

IAEA model for AI governance
Governance model

Lehane suggested that the proposed AI governance body could be modeled after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which includes China and sets global safety standards for nuclear energy development.

He also proposed linking the US Commerce Department's Center for AI Standards and Innovation with emerging global AI safety institutes as a way to establish this organization.

Challenges in accepting China-included guidelines
Proposal reception

Despite OpenAI's suggestion of connecting AI safety institutes, it remains uncertain if the Trump administration would accept global guidelines that include China.

White House officials have previously indicated their opposition to worldwide governance over AI technology.

This highlights the challenges and complexities of international cooperation in regulating advanced technologies like artificial intelligence.

Contrasting approaches to safety evaluations
Safety measures

OpenAI has also called for mandatory safety evaluations of cutting-edge models by government researchers, to be conducted in a classified environment.

This comes as the Trump administration prepares an executive order on AI cybersecurity that stresses voluntary pre-deployment model review.

The contrasting approaches highlight the ongoing debate over how best to ensure the safety and security of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence.

AI on the agenda for US-China summit
Summit agenda

AI is set to be a key topic in the ongoing US-China summit.

The American delegation, which includes senior administration officials and business leaders like NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, will raise concerns over AI.

One of the main issues could be China's alleged unfair use of advanced American models' outputs to create competing systems at lower costs and with fewer safeguards.