Anthony Albanese has kept tight-lipped on China’s offer to co-operate on artificial intelligence amid tensions between the government and the Trump administration.

Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian wrote an op-ed this week saying Beijing was keen to take a “more open attitude” to the free-trade agreement with Australia.

Mr Xiao said that included bolstering “co-operation in traditional areas such as agriculture and mining” but also exploring “new growth areas in emerging fields like artificial intelligence” – a convenient offer against a backdrop of fierce AI competition with the US.

Though, even as lacklustre Australian defence spending and US tariffs strain Canberra’s alliance with Washington, the Prime Minister was hesitant to embrace or reject the offer on Tuesday.

“We will determine our policy,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Hobart.

However, he was quick to spruik the benefits of free trade with China.

“Of course, we have a free-trade agreement that was done by the Coalition government when they were in office,” Mr Albanese said.

“What we have done is to get rid of the more than $20bn of impediments of goods that were stopped from going to China.

“It’s made an enormous difference and we have, indeed, products like wine and barley have not just bounced back – they’re back higher than they were before.”

He also spruiked his upcoming trip to China, calling it an “important trading partner for Australia”.

“Twenty-five per cent of our exports go to China,” Mr Albanese said.

“What that means is jobs and one of the things that my government prioritises is jobs.”

Pressed on whether he was open to having AI covered by the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, he dodged it, saying his “priority is jobs”.

China is in an AI race with the US.

The launch of DeepSeek in January dealt the first serious blow to the US’ global leadership in the space, with the ensuing tech sell-off wiping about $US1 trillion ($A1.5 trillion) in value off American titan Nvidia.

The Trump administration earlier this year announced a $US500bn investment in AI, eclipsing all other countries as the clear frontrunner.

About the same time, China launched a AI investment fund with an initial $8.2bn.

But with DeepSeek free and offering capabilities comparable to American counterpart OpenAI, the AI race may not be won by those who splash the most cash.

Written by Marsha Blackburn
U.S. Senator

Washington, D.C. – Last week, the Senate passed President Donald J. Trump’s landmark legislation to make America great again, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB).

Among its provisions, there is so much to celebrate: The largest tax cut in U.S. history, including reduced taxes on overtime and tips and a $6,000 enhanced deduction for seniors; permitting reforms to make America energy dominant; funds to complete the southern border wall and hire thousands of Border Patrol agents; historic investments to strengthen our military; the elimination of hundreds of billions of dollars in far-left, Green New Deal spending; and so much more.

As this monumental legislation heads to President Trump’s desk, however, Tennesseans and Americans across the country also have reason to celebrate what wasn’t included in the OBBB: a moratorium that would have prevented states from protecting their citizens from the unintended consequences and harms of artificial intelligence for 10 years.

During the voting process, I introduced an amendment to strike this measure from the legislation and ensure that state governments can continue to enact common sense safeguards for this emerging technology. Thankfully, my amendment was adopted by an overwhelming bipartisan majority: 99-1.

It’s rare to see such unanimous support in Congress on any issue, but when you look at the potential consequences of an AI moratorium, it’s easy to see why senators on both sides of the aisle united to defeat this measure.

While AI is driving new innovations that have the potential to transform our economy, it’s also exposing Americans to serious harms, including copyright infringement, unauthorized replication of individuals’ voice and likeness, and AI-generated sexual abuse material, including depictions of children.

These issues require legislative action to protect vulnerable Americans. Yet when it comes to transformative technologies like AI, Congress has failed to enact nationwide, federal standards. As Congress works on these issues, state governments across the country are standing in the gap to prevent Big Tech from exploiting children, creators, and conservatives.

Last year, Tennessee enacted the ELVIS Act, which protects our state’s incredible musicians and artists from having their voice and likeness used in AI-generated songs and content. Under the leadership of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R.), Arkansas has protected its residents from AI copyright infringement and the generation of sexually explicit images of real people, including children. And North Dakota recently adopted a law that prohibits the use of AI-powered robots and drones from stalking and harassing people.

These states are among more than two-dozen that have enacted AI safeguards in just the last year. That’s why, ahead of the amendment vote, 37 state attorneys general and 17 Republican governors spoke out against the moratorium. Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like my bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, the NO FAKES ACT, and an online privacy framework to protect consumers’ data, these states have every right to take action to protect their residents.

In many ways, that’s how our federal, constitutional government is supposed to work. When a new challenge arises, state governments can act quickly to provide solutions. And as these different approaches play out, Congress, if necessary, can choose among the best of them to establish nationwide standards. By striking the AI moratorium from the OBBB, the Senate preserved this essential process.

Apple has kept a low profile in the artificial intelligence arms race. But now, a major talent loss is raising fresh questions about whether the iPhone maker is falling behind.

According to Bloomberg, Meta has hired Ruoming Pang, a high-level engineer who led Apple’s foundation models team. Pang, a former Google veteran and key architect behind the large language models (LLMs) powering Apple Intelligence, will now join Meta’s elite AI unit focused on building superintelligent systems.

His exit is a significant blow for Apple, especially at a time when the company is trying to convince the public and developers that it’s serious about generative AI. He was in charge of the team of roughly 100 engineers building the foundational technology behind Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI features recently announced at the company’s WWDC event.

On his LinkedIn page, Pang described his role as leading the team that develops the foundation models that power Apple Intelligence. Think of foundation models as the base engine for AI. These massive, complex models, also known as Large Language Models (LLMs), are trained on vast amounts of data and can be adapted to perform a wide range of tasks, from summarizing your emails to generating images. Pang’s team was responsible for every aspect of these models, from the training framework (AXLearn) and inference optimization (making the AI run efficiently on your device) to its multi-modal capabilities (the ability to understand both text and images).

Just last month, Pang celebrated his team’s work in a LinkedIn post following Apple’s developer conference. “At WWDC we introduce a new generation of LLMs developed to enhance the Apple Intelligence features,” he wrote. “I’m very excited about the progress we have made since last year and would like to take this opportunity to thank our team and collaborators. It has been a true privilege to work with you all!”

Pang joined Apple in 2021 after a 15 year career at Google. His departure now raises serious questions about Apple’s ability to retain top talent as it tries to play catch up in the AI arms race.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are not just participating in the talent war; they are its most aggressive combatants. In a relentless push to build what he calls Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or “superintelligence”—AI systems that can reason and think at or above human levels—Zuckerberg has been personally courting top researchers from across the industry. Meta is reportedly offering multi million dollar compensation packages to lure talent from rivals, particularly OpenAI.

This “hiring spree” has seen Meta assemble a dream team of AI pioneers, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. By convincing Pang to leave Apple, Zuckerberg has shown that no company is safe from his talent raid.

The move comes at a vulnerable moment for Apple. The company has faced internal debate over whether to rely on its in house models or strike deeper partnerships with third parties like OpenAI for future versions of Siri. This uncertainty has reportedly impacted morale within the AI division, and Pang’s exit could trigger a wider exodus of talent.

For Apple, losing the mind behind its core AI models is a critical setback. For Meta, it’s another high profile victory in its audacious, high stakes quest to dominate the next era of computing.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.