(Corrects dateline to Sept 25 (not Sept 23) By Ellen Zhang and Alessandro Diviggiano BEIJING/SHENZHEN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - When Zhu Zhili was looking for a base to set up an artificial intelligence film studio in China two years ago,

The Pope was a “useful idiot for the Chinese Communist Party” when he warned against the dangers of Artificial Intelligence in his first encyclical, Peter Thiel said.

“The scientific, technical term is BS,” said a second person familiar with the mechanism.

Experts warn Chinese labs are using "knowledge distillation" and free software to undercut U.S. tech dominance, bypass billions in research, and supercharge cognitive warfare.

President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to discuss artificial intelligence and trade when they meet on Thursday.

AI is everywhere in China. In Hangzhou, humanoid police robots wearing fluorescent-yellow vests patrol tourist hot spots, gently admonishing jaywalkers. The Chinese AI chatbot Doubao is such a popular source of medical advice that citizens have begun to call the service “Doctor Doubao.

Potato farmers rub shoulders with rows of gleaming new data centres as Trump and Xi meet to discuss AI safety.

China's Foreign Ministry called the Anthropic CEO's warning about the dangers of Chinese-developed AI "fearmongering," as the Chinese and U.S. leaders prepare to meet in Washington later this month.

When Trump or CEOs like Sam Altman advocate for American-led global AI standards, all China probably sees is the US wielding safety discussions as a way to lock in its advantage, he said. Those concerns may even render Bessent’s alert system useless in the long term if China feels that “AI safety” is a code word for suppressing Chinese AI.