Ro Khanna proposes US-China AI treaty and questions Chinese companies
In letters shared exclusively with The Verge, Ro Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to assess how effectively the US could respond if an AI lab lost control of its agents, as well as to examine the Chinese government’s approach to catastrophic AI risks. DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI were asked for documents on efforts toward “superintelligence” and recursive self-improvement (RSI), along with safeguards, “kill switches,” and possible independent inspections. The companies and ODNI did not immediately respond to The Verge.
Khanna told The Verge that he wants a US-China treaty banning RSI and monitoring frontier AI labs, but acknowledged that such an agreement is unlikely soon. As an interim measure, he proposed a working group from both countries to recommend safety standards and ways to verify compliance.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
The proposal places risks involving loss of control over agents and recursive self-improvement at the center of US-China discussions. Since Khanna acknowledges that a treaty is unlikely soon, a bilateral working group could serve as an interim way to discuss standards and compliance verification, although the companies and ODNI had not responded to The Verge.
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