On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt) upcoming Capitol Hill AI safety forum, arguing that America's greatest AI risk is allowing foreign powers — particularly China — to influence how the U.S. regulates the technology.
Bessent Attacks Sanders' International AI Cooperation Push
The clash erupted after Sanders announced an April 29 discussion on existential AI risks featuring researchers from both the U.S. and China.
The forum will bring together prominent AI experts, including MIT's Max Tegmark, University of Montreal researcher David Krueger, Tsinghua University's Xue Lan and Zeng Yi from the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance.
Sanders said on X that "uncontrolled AI poses a severe danger to all of humanity" and called international cooperation essential to addressing what he described as an existential threat.
Bessent fired back, saying, "The United States is home to the most talented AI researchers in the world," while accusing Sanders of looking abroad instead of relying on American innovation.
He added, "The real threat to AI safety is letting any nation other than the United States set the global standard."
US-China AI Rivalry Intensifies
The U.S. has largely favored a market-driven regulatory approach to preserve innovation, while China has embraced centralized state oversight to accelerate its domestic AI and semiconductor leadership.
In 2025, the U.S. and the U.K. chose not to sign a global AI safety declaration at the AI Action Summit in Paris.
At the time, nearly 60 other nations — including China, India and Germany — backed the nonbinding agreement supporting AI that is "safe, secure and trustworthy."
Bessent's remarks also come amid heightened scrutiny of China's expanding AI ecosystem, as the Donald Trump administration this month accused China-linked actors of stealing American AI technologies through unauthorized model distillation.
Silicon Valley And Policymakers Divided On AI Governance
Prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen also signaled concern over Sanders' event.
In 2024, the EU enacted the world's first comprehensive AI law, initially targeting systems classified as posing "unacceptable" risk.
Last year, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai urged the creation of clear nationwide AI regulations that would help the U.S. stay competitive with China.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Image via Shutterstock/ DT phots1
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