Shlomit Wagman argues US-China AI cooperation possible without trust

The conventional wisdom on international AI governance goes something like this: the US and China don’t trust each other, so meaningful cooperation on AI safety is a pipe dream. Shlomit Wagman thinks that framing gets it exactly backwards. Wagman, whose background spans international finance regulation and AI governance, is pushing a counterintuitive argument: the first workable global AI safety pact should be explicitly designed for a world where trust doesn’t exist. Rather than waiting for some grand geopolitical thaw that may never come, she contends that narrow, self-interested agreements on extreme risks can get the job done. The case for cooperation without friendship Wagman’s thesis draws from a straightforward observation. Both Washington and Beijing face the same category of existential AI risks, from loss-of-control scenarios to bioweapons development enabled by frontier models. You don’t need to like someone to agree that neither of you wants the building to burn down. US-China dialogues on AI risks have been active around September 2026, with both sides focusing on shared vulnerabilities. The conversations reportedly center on managing “loss of control” scenarios and mu...