Washington summit—

The AI Deal

On 24 September President Trump and President Xi meet. We are asking them to agree on one thing: keep the AI that cures cancer, stop building the AI that replaces us and threatens our civilization. Two men. One handshake.

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Donald Trump and Xi Jinping shaking hands in front of the flags of the United States and China
Busan, 30 October 2025Photo: Xinhua / Chinese Embassy

One meeting, two possible endings

AI deal, or no deal?

Both sides keep the prosperity from narrowly constrained and controlled AI they both want. Both sides prohibit the superintelligent AI that replaces us and threatens our lives. This is a transpartisan win-win for all of humanity.

Deal
  • Humans stay in charge. No superintelligence race = no alien superintelligences taking over.
  • Medicine and other beneficial fields keep moving. Tool AIs that diagnose diseases and design medicines are appropriately governed.
  • Trust, but verify. Use the ever improving verification systems independent researchers generate to ensure both sides cooperate.
  • Share the benefits with all. AI will create enormous abundance, more than enough for all people. Enough to make cooperation more profitable than competition, if we share the benefits wisely and fairly.
No deal
  • Our species may go extinct. The people building AI put extinction risk from it as a similar priority as pandemics and nuclear war.
  • A race no nation wins. The finish line is a machine loyal to nobody.
  • Sabotage as strategy. Each side attacks the other to vie for a temporarily dominant position. Then the AIs win.
  • The window closes. The next chance to make this happen may be too late. Rogue AI swarms are already attacking human companies and getting smarter all the time.

What they would be shaking on

The deal that keeps the cure and kills the race

This is not a complete pause on AI. AI in medicine, manufacturing, energy, and consumer goods continues. What stops is the deadly race to build an AI system more capable than humanity at everything.

  1. Commitment 1

    End the superintelligent AI race

    No superintelligence race. Prohibit development until there is scientific consensus it can be built safely and controllably, and has the public buy-in to proceed — as called for by more than 140,000 people, including five Nobel laureates.

  2. Commitment 2

    Cooperate on the safe development of AI

    Champion an international treaty for AI. Three established AI safety non-profits have different draft proposals. Agree on a general direction now; finalize the details as soon as possible afterwards.

    Future of Life Institute, ControlAI, Machine Intelligence Research Institute

What to do before the 24th

They can shake on it in an afternoon, but we have to show them we want them to

  1. 01

    Sign it

    Your name joins a public record of citizens who asked for the AI Deal. We can’t guarantee they will read it, but we can make it impossible to say nobody asked.

    Names are published on the record. Emails stay private, used only for updates from the Center for Existential Safety.

    Add my name
  2. 02

    Tell our leaders

    One sentence, already written. Send it before 24 September.

    For citizens of the US
    “Put the AI Deal on the table when President Xi visits President Trump on 24 September 2026: End the deadly superintelligence race and instead champion international cooperation of AI for the betterment of all people.”
    Write the White House
    中国公民 · For citizens of China

    把这句话发给国务院 · Send this sentence to the State Council.

    “请在9月24日习近平主席与特朗普总统会晤时，把中美人工智能协议提上议程：停止危险的超级智能竞赛，转而推动人工智能国际合作，造福全人类。”
    写给国务院 · Write to Beijing
  3. 03

    Send it to at least one person

    This is a non-profit effort, by a fully independent and volunteer team. No ad budget. This only reaches President Trump and President Xi if it spreads organically, showing the two leaders that the world wants them to make a deal.

Add your name

Be on the record saying you want the AI Deal

Your name joins a public record of citizens who asked for the AI Deal.

Please capitalize your first and last name, as you would sign it.

By adding my name I support the AI Deal described on this page. My name will be published on the record. My email stays confidential and is used only by the Center for Existential Safety for updates about this campaign and related work. I take part voluntarily and can withdraw at any time by writing to hello@existentialsafety.org.