Washington, September 30, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
US Congressman Ro Khanna has warned that neither the United States nor China would emerge victorious if humanity lost control of advanced artificial intelligence, as he called for safeguards against potentially catastrophic biological, nuclear and economic risks.
Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, has sought information from Chinese AI companies DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI about their plans for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence.
“Neither the US nor China wins if humans lose control of this technology or misaligned AI triggers a global economic, biological, or nuclear crisis,” Khanna wrote in letters to DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu and Moonshot AI CEO Yang Zhilin.
In a separate letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Khanna requested two formal assessments from the US intelligence community on the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems.
The move follows a September 23 congressional hearing that examined the possibility of a binding, enforceable and verifiable agreement between the United States and China to address catastrophic AI risks.
Khanna has asked the three Chinese companies to provide details on five key areas: recursive self-improvement, the development of AGI and superintelligence, emergency shutdown mechanisms, model testing and international verification.
He wants to know whether the companies are developing, or intend to develop, AI systems capable of recursively improving themselves, and what safeguards would prevent humans from losing control of such systems. He has also sought their development plans and timelines for AGI and superintelligence.
The letters further ask whether the companies have mechanisms to disable highly advanced AI systems in the event that human control is lost.
Khanna has also sought details on how AI models are tested before release, including whether testing takes place in air-gapped environments and whether systems are screened for capabilities that could pose threats to humanity, such as the development of dangerous biological capabilities.
Another area of inquiry concerns the companies’ willingness to participate in US-China technical working groups to develop technologies for verifying compliance with a potential international AI agreement. Khanna also asked whether they would permit independent inspections.
“Simply put, it is clear we cannot gamble the future of humanity on whether AI companies – including Chinese companies like yours – will responsibly self-regulate,” he wrote.
Khanna had earlier invited DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI to join US AI laboratories in a commitment to “pace the frontier” by slowing the development of increasingly advanced systems until adequate safeguards were in place. The Chinese companies did not respond by the September 22 deadline.
In his latest letters, Khanna criticised the companies over what he described as their involvement in human rights abuses, censorship, support for China’s military and intelligence services, and illicit distillation of US AI models.
“With every refusal by your companies to participate in this effort to seek a verifiable global slowdown of AI development to benefit all of humanity, you only strengthen the case for a binding and enforceable AI treaty between our governments,” he wrote.
Khanna is also seeking an assessment from US intelligence agencies of the country’s ability to respond if control of an advanced AI system were lost.
He has asked the intelligence community to assess Chinese President Xi Jinping’s and the Chinese Communist Party’s understanding of catastrophic AI risks, including AI misalignment and the potential use of advanced systems to facilitate biological, chemical or nuclear harm.
The congressman has urged US intelligence agencies to develop capabilities to monitor Chinese frontier AI laboratories. He has also proposed joint US-China technical working groups involving leading scientists to develop verification technologies for a possible international agreement.
“History will look back at this moment, the choices made by humanity as we potentially approach the Rubicon of superintelligence or AGI, and either celebrate our foresight or condemn our inaction,” Khanna wrote.
AI has increasingly become part of the broader US-China technology rivalry, which also involves restrictions on advanced semiconductors and scrutiny in Washington over Chinese access to American technology and computing capabilities.
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