Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged co-operation to ensure AI does not escape human control, putting him at odds with US President Donald Trump as the two met at the White House.

Trump rolled out the red carpet for Xi on Friday (AEST) on his first trip to US since 2023, with trade tensions and artificial intelligence dominating the agenda.

Xi put AI front and centre amid growing warnings at the United Nations gathering in New York this week about the risks to humanity of unfettered development of the technology.

Against the backdrop of an AI arms race between China and the US, Xi said the technology should be managed “for good”.

“China and the US are leading nations in AI, and we have both the capability and responsibility to develop and manage AI for good and ensure the development of AI is always under human control,” he said.

Trump, however, has previously called warnings about AI a “hoax” and rejected calls for guardrails.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed on Thursday that a rogue OpenAI agent had hacked into a Medicare portal — which the ABC reported was the first known instance of AI infiltrating a government website.

The disclosure of the incident came as Albanese used his appearance at the UN to urge foreign leaders to follow Australia’s lead in regulating AI safeguards.

At the White House, Trump and Xi struck a conciliatory tone, emphasising the need for greater communication and co-operation between the two countries that have the world’s largest economies.

Their meeting was not live-streamed on some major television networks due to an ongoing dispute between Trump and the White House press pool over him banning some journalists.

There were no TV pool cameras set ‌up for Xi’s arrival on the White House’s South Lawn Thursday morning (US time), and Fox News, MS NOW and CNN did not air the two leaders’ arrival ceremony live.

During Trump’s welcome of Xi to the White House, the president made a joke to photographers in the Oval Office about the Chinese having the friendliest press corps.

Later, the White House said it had reinstated reporters from CNN, MS NOW ‌and Politico after a federal judge deemed Trump’s ban on them unconstitutional and ordered their access immediately restored.

Hours after Judge Kelly issued his order, CNN, MS NOW and Politico told the judge they remained barred, and asked for the emergency hearing.

In response, Micah Stopperich, the director of press operations at the White House, said in a court filing that the White House began the ​process of reinstating press badges for affected reporters at 7.25am, and that the “White House press team dropped badges at the entry gate for members of the press to pick up around 9.55am”.

Trump announced the ban last Friday on his social media platform, saying those news organisations “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States”.

Trump framed their reporting as a threat to US national security.

Trump hails ‘great meeting’

The Chinese president’s US trip got off to an auspicious start as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a two-month extension to the trade truce between the two superpowers late on Wednesday (US time).

Xi invited 100,000 US citizens to study in China and the country is set to continue its panda diplomacy by sending two pandas to a US zoo as a signal of friendship.

Trump announced “decisions” would be made on key issues such as “security, technology, and super intelligence,” the US president’s preferred new term for artificial intelligence and a crucial arena of competition between the two countries.

“The decisions we make in these areas today can promote peace and prosperity for decades and decades to come,” Trump said.

According to a written address released by China’s official news agency Xinhua, Xi stated that the US and China should be partners not rivals.

He said it was a crucial year for relations between the two countries, adding that they should foster stable relations characterised by co-operation, moderate competition, surmountable differences and the prospect of peace.

The two leaders were set to hold bilateral talks after the reception at the White House before a state dinner on Thursday evening attended by US tech executives.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai and Apple chief executive Tim Cook are all expected, according to a senior government official.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan landed on Wednesday evening at Joint Base Andrews near Washington DC, where they were greeted by Trump and his wife Melania.

The US rolled out the red carpet to welcome the Chinese delegation, with children presenting bouquets of flowers to Xi and his wife while two B-1 bombers flew overhead.

The welcome ceremony also included a 21-person guard of honour, a battery salute from cannons and the US air force band playing both national anthems.

Further topics likely to be discussed during the visit, which concludes on Friday, include global conflicts such as the war in Iran and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Xi last visited the US in 2023, when he travelled to California for the APEC economic summit and met Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.

This is his first trip to the White House since 2015, during Barack Obama’s presidency, although the Chinese president visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2017.

Trump invited Xi to the White House during his own visit to Beijing in mid-May.

Bessent told Fox News the two countries’ trade truce had been extended after he and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held an unscheduled meeting in Washington DC.

“The economic détente between the two countries that was scheduled to end on November 10, that is going to be extended until January 10 to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic front,” Bessent said.

China did not immediately comment on the announcement.

In April last year, the US increased import tariffs on Chinese goods in several stages to up to 145 per cent.

China responded with counter-tariffs of up to 125 per cent and export restrictions on certain materials.

Both sides then agreed to a 90-day suspension of new tariffs multiple times, before Trump and Xi reached a broader trade truce in Busan, South Korea, in October.

The expiry of the agreement would also have triggered an expansion of Chinese export controls on rare earths, which have affected companies in Europe since their introduction in April 2025.

-with AAP