Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump agreed to leave artificial intelligence policy as it stands, according to Il Sole 24 ORE. The Italian business daily reported the understanding on Thursday, 24 September 2026, framing it as a decision to keep the current arrangement rather than change it.
The report places the agreement within Xi's visit to the United States, which Italian outlets covered as a broader diplomatic moment. ANSA described the trip as a set of dossiers and red lines on the table, listing tariffs and AI among the topics under discussion. Radio Radicale examined the same visit through the lens of AI governance, treating the question of how the technology should be managed as a central issue of the trip.
The meeting between the two leaders comes amid continuing debate over which country holds the advantage in artificial intelligence. Corriere della Sera posed that question directly, asking whether the United States or China is further ahead in the AI race. Il Post, for its part, questioned whether the widely described "race" with China is as clear-cut as it is often presented.
Taken together, the Italian coverage suggests the two governments chose continuity over new commitments on AI, even as the broader competition between them remains a subject of open disagreement among analysts and commentators.
What to watch next: whether either government offers its own account of the meeting, and whether the reported understanding produces any formal statement on AI policy.
