Xi used his White House welcome to call for keeping AI always under human control

Five days earlier, Trump wrote that the courts America already has are enough to catch the bad in AI.

By Think Facility · September 24, 2026 · China AI policy

On September 24, 2026, Xi Jinping stood on the State Floor of the White House and gave his welcome speech. Somewhere between the pandas and the direct flights, he got to AI. China and the United States, he said, are both "leading nations in artificial intelligence."

He didn't stop at the compliment. The two countries, he said, should make sure "the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people." It's two sentences in the whole speech. I'd expected AI to come up, given the week, but I didn't expect it filed under cooperation (right between open doors for American companies and counternarcotics).

When: September 24, 2026
Where: the State Floor of the White House
On AI: always under human control
Also announced: an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China

We have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good, and ensure that the development of AI is always under human control and serves the well-being of the people.

From Full text: Xi's remarks at arrival ceremony at the White House

What Trump said five days earlier

Trump's own long post on AI went up on Truth Social on September 19. He put the "decimation, or destruction, of AI" on a list of hoaxes, and he said his government "will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry."

At night beside Air Force One, a crowd of young people waving small flags lines a red carpet as men in dark suits are introduced to one another — Trump's arrival at Beijing International Airport on his visit to China earlier this year, the visit Xi pointed back to in Washington. Photo: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

So who catches the bad actors? The courts America already has, in his telling, plus a new AI Force (we wrote that post up when it went out). And he closed on China.

We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!

From Donald J. Trump: "Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Le...

Side by side, each leaves out what the other said. Xi's speech never mentions slowing AI down. Trump's post never mentions human control.

A race, kept within bounds

Granted, Xi's lines on rivalry sat in a different part of the speech, and he didn't tie them to AI himself. He did use the word race. Trump's post doesn't. Competition between the two "should be a healthy one and should be kept within bounds," he said.

It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses.

From Full text: Xi's remarks at arrival ceremony at the White House

He also wants the two militaries talking regularly, with better ways to head off a crisis. I think that's the nearest the speech gets to safety, and it isn't about AI at all.

The visit ends on Friday morning. The White House schedule has tea in the Red Room, then a trip to the National Archives, where the Trumps say goodbye to Xi and Peng Liyuan.

Xi used his White House welcome to call for keeping AI always under human control

What Trump said five days earlier

A race, kept within bounds

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