Biden, Xi agree, 'humans not AI' should dictate nuclear weapon use in a rare face-to-face meeting

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on Saturday afternoon and agreed that humans, not Artificial Intelligence (AI) should dictate the use of nuclear weapons. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, which is being held in Peru.

This is believed to be the final face-to-face meeting between the two world leaders while Biden is still in the Oval Office. Before delivering their opening remarks at a joint press conference, Biden and Xi shook hands and exchanged cordial smiles. The meeting came against the backdrop of Republican firebrand Donald Trump’s looming upcoming presidency.

“The two leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement on Saturday. “The two leaders also stressed the need to consider carefully the potential risks and develop AI technology in the military field in a prudent and responsible manner," the statement further reads.

US pushes China for nuclear arms talk

While it is unclear whether the statement would lead to further talks between the two nations, it marked the first-of-its-kind discussion between the two leaders over AI and nuclear weapons. Washington has been urging Beijing for months to break its longstanding resistance towards nuclear arms talks.

Earlier, the two nations briefly resumed official-level talks over nuclear arms. However, those negotiations have been stalled for months with US officials expressing frustration regarding the reluctance of their Chinese counterparts.

Not only this, Trump’s imminent comeback to the White House also casts a black shadow over the ties between the two countries as it remains unclear how the US will be handling China under the Trump regime. During his campaign, Trump presented a hawkish approach towards China, pledging to increase tariffs to 60 per cent on Chinese imports.

After his win in the 2024 race, he picked Senator Marco Rubio as the secretary of State and Republican representative Mike Waltz as national security adviser, both of whom have voiced hawkish views on China. Meanwhile, Xi congratulated Trump on his landslide victory, noting that their two countries must “get along with each other in the new era”, in a statement.

“A stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship is in the common interest of both countries and is in line with the expectations of the international community,” the Chinese president said earlier this month.

Despite all this, relations between China and the US have been on the edge recently after an FBI investigation showed that the Chinese government tried to hack into US telecommunications networks to try to steal the information of American government workers and politicians. Last month, officials mentioned that operations linked to China targeted the phone of Trump and running mate JD Vance, along with the staff of Kamala Harris.

With inputs from agencies.