At this week’s U.S.-China summit, AI is front and center. While no major agreement is anticipated, President Trump and President Xi are expected to discuss AI and security. Before the summit began, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that China and the U.S. had discussed establishing a bilateral mechanism for the nations to report AI incidents that could impact national security. Read early reporting on the summit from CNBC, PBS, and the New York Times. Additional reporting is expected as well.
Thank you for reading. Below you’ll find additional tech policy news and a featured highlight focused on AI diffusion.
This Week in Washington
- CyberScoop: A new bill, the AI Cyber Defense Act, was introduced following a recent series of cyberattacks on water facilities. The bill would establish a test program within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to give critical infrastructure operators free access to frontier AI models to protect their systems.
- Politico: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rolled out its first artificial intelligence-powered tool to manage flights for the three major Washington-area airports. The technology will complement air traffic controllers, with humans continuing to manage airspace.
- Nextgov and Reuters: The President said that he plans to create an “AI Force” and appoint a new artificial intelligence lead to boost U.S. development of the emerging technologies. The announcement also included a plan to appoint a new artificial intelligence adviser.
- NBC News: How are lawmakers leveraging AI? Some use it for personal tasks, like writing social media posts or even songs, while others use it for work in their Capitol Hill offices or on the campaign trail to aid in their research and help them be more efficient.
- Marketplace Tech Podcast: Meta agreed to a settlement with 52 attorneys general in a landmark case over teen social media addiction. Could that settlement impact how people access the internet?
- Wall Street Journal: The AI build-out is on track to become the biggest economic bet in U.S. history, dwarfing the investments made to fund other huge U.S. infrastructure projects such as the railroads, the highway system and the plumbing for the internet.
Featured Highlight
Microsoft on the Issues:
This week, Microsoft published its latest Global AI Diffusion Report. Global AI diffusion continued to climb in the second quarter of 2026. In June, AI usage was 18.8% of the working-age population worldwide, an increase of about 1% from the first quarter of this year. Growth was broad-based: almost every economy saw increased usage. Notably, the U.S. remained in 21st place on the global list of AI diffusion rates. Read more from Microsoft on the Issues or access the full report.
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