There was a lot of trademark musing in Elon Musk’s sit-down yesterday with cub reporter Rishi Sunak – AI could replace all jobs, be a good friend, attain human-level intelligence, get a software update and turn unfriendly. But there was also a concrete point couched as flattery. Musk praised Sunak for inviting China to attend his two-day AI summit (rounded off with their surreal conversation under gilt-framed oil paintings at Lancaster House), because, he said, “if they’re not participants it’s pointless”. He was referring to Sunak’s effort to establish internationally enforceable AI safety rules. If China didn’t sign up to them, Musk said, “they would just jump into the lead and exceed us all”. Even though US export controls have already cut off Chinese access to the West’s most advanced chips and chip manufacturing machines? Maybe Musk, who has a fair few factories in China, knows something the rest of us don’t.