Rep. Ro Khanna's 'shadow hearing' with Hinton calls for a US–China AI pacing agreement; letters to DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot
On Sept 23, 2026, the day before Trump's White House meeting with Xi Jinping, Rep. Ro Khanna (ranking Democrat on the House China Select Committee) held a virtual "shadow hearing" calling for a binding US–China agreement to pace frontier AI. Geoffrey Hinton and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jack Shanahan testified that the US government cannot currently monitor advanced models at frontier labs. Khanna also wrote to Moonshot AI, Alibaba and DeepSeek asking them to commit to such an agreement. On Sept 29 he followed up with questions to those labs and to the Director of National Intelligence.
Key facts
- Witnesses: Geoffrey Hinton; Lt. Gen. John 'Jack' Shanahan (USAF ret., CNAS); Matt Sheehan (Carnegie); Miriam Vogel (EqualAI); Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh (Cambridge) (committee Democrats)
- Khanna: 'We urgently need an agreement with China on basic inspections and safety standards.'
- OpenAI and Anthropic had not committed to testify despite multiple requests; Khanna said the committee would consider compulsion once Democrats hold the majority
- Sept 29 follow-up letters: to DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI on recursive self-improvement safeguards, AGI/superintelligence plans, kill switches, auditing/testing and participation in verification and inspection; to the DNI asking for assessments of US readiness for loss-of-control scenarios and of Xi's and the CCP's understanding of catastrophic AI risk
- Khanna: 'Neither the U.S. nor China wins if humans lose control of this technology or misaligned AI triggers a global economic, biological, or nuclear crisis.'
What happened
Khanna's Democrats are in the minority, so this was not an official committee hearing. It ran as a livestreamed virtual session timed before the Trump–Xi meeting. Five days later Khanna announced the Human Control Over AI Act (see related entry).
Why it matters
Calls in Congress for a US–China agreement to "pace the frontier" had grown louder, and this hearing gave them a formal setting with a Nobel laureate and a former head of the Pentagon's JAIC as witnesses. Letters from a US lawmaker directly to Chinese labs are unusual.
Changelog
- 2026-10-01: created from leads
Related events
- Rep. Ro Khanna announces the Human Control Over AI Act: ban on recursive self-improving AI, strict liability, FDA-style agency ★★★
- Hinton tells lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Congress has 'maybe a year' to regulate AI ★★★
- Dario Amodei publishes "We Must Pace the Frontier", calling for a deliberate slowdown ★★★★
Sources (5)
- officialSelect Committee on the CCP (Democrats): Shadow Hearing Calling for U.S.-China AI Agreement
- officialPress release: Ranking Member Ro Khanna convenes emergency hearing calling for U.S.-China AI agreement
- officialPress release (Sept 29): Khanna demands answers from Chinese AI labs, intelligence community on catastrophic AI risks
- pressBloomberg Government: Khanna planning shadow hearing to call for US-China truce on AI
- videoCNBC video: Rep. Khanna on push for U.S.-China AI deal (Sept 23)
id: 2026-09-23-khanna-shadow-hearing-us-china-ai-agreement · updated 2026-10-01 · open in the interactive timeline