Washington DC - President Donald Trump ruled out the possibility of launching any kind of joint artificial intelligence (AI) venture with China, warning that such a move could amount to "giving away secrets."
Trump touted the US as "leading by a lot" in the AI sector during an event on Tuesday, but said he didn't want to "mix it up" with potential competitors – especially China – which may pose the biggest risk to Washington.
"If we do that, we're going to be giving a lot of secrets that we have that they [China] would want to have, or anybody else," he said. "Frankly, there is nobody in third place… it's all between us and China."
His comments came amid an event to mark the launch of America.gov, a new AI-powered website designed to streamline administration conducted via government services.
The platform, which effectively operates as a chatbot, was developed under the oversight of Joe Gebbia, who co-founded Airbnb and joined the administration last year in the newly-formed role of chief design officer.
On Tuesday, Trump also met with an assortment of tech executives to discuss the future regulation of AI. After the meeting, he declared: "They're going to police themselves!"
Trump said that while he spoke about the issue of AI during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, he's not willing to work with Beijing on the development of such technology.
"Then they're going to be able to immediately gain access to things that we know that they don't know," he explained. "We're leading now over China and everyone else – and I want to keep it that way."