The US will work with China on the safety of artificial intelligence systems in the coming months, the White House’s top science adviser has said, signalling a rare co-operation between the two powers.Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told the Financial Times that, despite Sino-US trade tensions over AI, the countries would work together to lessen its risks and assess its capabilities.

“Steps have been taken to engage in that process,” Prabhakar said of future collaboration with China on AI. “We have to try to work [with Beijing].”

Her comments are an explicit signal that the two powers plan to collaborate on safeguarding the rapidly developing technology, even at a time of heightened trade tensions between the countries.