Morning Scan

The AI diplomacy track is suddenly the most interesting subplot in US-China relations — incident alerts, warning systems, a dialogue ahead of Trump-Xi — while at home the White House can't explain what it actually announced last week. China's stock stamp duty is up 80%+ on an AI trading frenzy, and Jensen Huang is saying the quiet part loud.

$32.3B — China's stamp duty haul on stock sales, Jan-Aug, up 80%+ YoY as an AI-driven trading boom juices volumes. (SCMP)

Machines & Minds

Trump now says he wants to form an 'AI Force'

A Truth Social post has become policy. (The Verge)

The White House will not say what Trump's AI Force is

Two days later, nobody in the building can define the thing that was announced. (The Next Web)

The US has proposed an AI incident alert system to China

The more substantive AI-and-China story of the week, buried under czar chatter. (The Next Web)

U.S. and China Discuss System to Warn of A.I. National Security Issues (paywall)

Bessent and He Lifeng talking shared vision ahead of the Trump-Xi summit — worth watching more than the AI Force theater. (NYT)

A detailed recap of the White House's 19-day standoff with Anthropic (paywall)

Officials bluntly ordered Dario Amodei to pull Fable over a jailbreak dispute — the regulatory posture in one anecdote. (Politico)

Connected World

How the Clarity Act collapsed in the Senate (paywall)

Crypto had the votes and the lobbying muscle and still torched its own bill — the blame game is the real story. (WSJ)

China Promised to Buy More U.S. Farm Goods. It Hasn't Happened. (paywall)

Beijing's trade-commitment fulfillment remains selective, soybeans notwithstanding. (NYT)

Eric Schmidt-backed drone startups to split 60,000-unit Pentagon order

No China-made parts required — the defense-tech supply chain rewrite continues. (The Information)

Machines & Minds

Jensen Huang says AI leaders calling for regulation actually want relief from existing laws

Huang's not wrong that "please regulate us" often means "please regulate my competitor." (Business Insider)

Chinese memory-maker CXMT claims DRAM production breakthrough

Another data point in the memory-chip self-sufficiency push, whatever "claims" ends up meaning in practice. (The Register)

“If we are thinking about AI just in terms of how do we cure cancer or get better energy, you can do that without...” — Obama, on agentic AI (Marginal Revolution)