Global AI governance stalls as geopolitical rivalry and corporate capture delay equitable safety frameworks
Original framing: “US, China to meet again on AI safety in two months in Shenzhen, Bessent says - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
A trickster reading of this headline might expose how the US and China’s AI safety talks are a performative spectacle, much like the *Coyote* myths that reveal the absurdity of human pretensions. Just as Coyote’s mischief exposes the fragility of human systems, these talks ignore the deeper absurdity of treating AI as a 'safety' issue while allowing its unchecked deployment in military, corporate, and surveillance contexts. The *Anansi* spider of West African folklore, who weaves tales to challenge power, would see this as another instance of elites using language to obscure their control. The trickster here is the very idea of 'AI safety' as a neutral concept—it is a smokescreen for geopolitical and corporate agendas, masking the real risks of unregulated AI.
The US-China AI safety talks are a symptom of a broader systemic failure: the reduction of AI governance to a geopolitical chessboard where corporate and state actors collude to exclude public oversight, Indigenous knowledge, and marginalized voices.
Historical parallels—from the nuclear arms race to the unregulated internet—demonstrate how such exclusionary models lead to reactive, crisis-driven solutions rather than proactive, equitable frameworks. Cross-cultural perspectives, such as Māori *tikanga* or African *Ubuntu*, offer alternatives rooted in relational ethics and stewardship, yet these are systematically sidelined in favor of Western techno-optimism. The trickster dimension reveals the absurdity of framing AI as a 'safety' issue while allowing its deployment in surveillance, military, and exploitative contexts, masking deeper power imbalances. To break this cycle, solution pathways must prioritize multilateral governance with Indigenous and civil society representation, open-source safety protocols, cross-cultural ethical integration, and just transition funds—shifting AI from a tool of domination to one of collective liberation.