US pushes ‘hands-off’ AI regulation at G20 amid China rivalry

The United States is set to push for adopting a hands-off approach to regulate artificial intelligence at G-20, as reported by the Trump administration’s official.

At G-20 summit that began on Tuesday in North Carolina, industry leaders, tech titans and commerce ministers will gather to discuss the AI sector's development.

The announcement comes at a time when the debate related to governing AI has intensified as the United States and China are locked in competition to gain AI supremacy.

The two-day US-hosted meeting is led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House tech adviser Michael Kratsior.

Kratsios will push for a "pro-growth vision for the future of emerging technologies," as per the statement. At this meeting, Washington is persuading international delegates and member countries not to establish new regulatory bodies to regulate artificial intelligence development.

Kratsios will tell the group that "policymakers do not need to ⁠approach each innovation in isolation and should not treat every emerging technology as a first-of-a-kind policy problem," as reported by Reuters.

The statement coincides at a time when the world is witnessing surging incidents marked by AI agents going rogue autonomously. These unsettling incidents include OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.

Even the United Nations panel recently warned that AI development is outpacing governance frameworks and scientific understanding.

At the meeting, high-profile speakers will also make their debut. For instance, Elom Musk and ‌former White ⁠House AI adviser David Sacks will address on Tuesday through video chat. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared alongside Howard Lutnick and address on Wednesday.

US anxiety over the rise of capable Chinese open-weight AI models gaining traction with American companies, driving an urgency to keep the global tech ecosystem aligned with the US.

"It has increased urgency for this administration to make sure that the rest of the world stays within the American tech ecosystem and doesn't seek ⁠alternatives," said ​Vivek Chilukuri, a technology and national security fellow at the Center for a New American ​Security.