China tells its AI leaders to avoid US travel over security concerns

1/3/2025 15:15

Chinese authorities are instructing the country's top artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and researchers to avoid travel to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.



The authorities are concerned that Chinese AI experts traveling abroad could divulge confidential information about the nation's progress, the newspaper said.



Authorities also fear that executives could be detained and used as a bargaining chip in U.S.-China negotiations, the Journal said, drawing parallels to the detention of a Huawei executive in Canada at Washington's request during the first Trump administration.



The U.S. and China are locked in a global AI race, with Chinese startup DeepSeek recently launching AI models that it claims rival or surpass U.S. industry leaders such as OpenAI and Alphabet Inc's Google, at significantly lower cost.



Chinese President Xi Jinping told a meeting of top Communist Party officials on Friday to improve China's overall security, including in the realms of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, China's state broadcaster reported on Saturday.