China announced on Saturday its intention to establish an international body to promote global collaboration on artificial intelligence, positioning itself as a counterweight to the United States in the race for leadership over the rapidly advancing technology.
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Speaking at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Premier Li Qiang said China aims to support coordinated global regulation of AI and share its technological progress with the world.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday released an AI blueprint aiming to vastly expand U.S. AI exports to allies in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology.
Li did not name the United States but appeared to refer to Washington’s efforts to stymie China’s advances in AI, warning that the technology risked becoming the “exclusive game” of a few countries and companies.
China wants AI to be openly shared and for all countries and companies to have equal rights to use it, Li said, adding that Beijing was willing to share its development experience and products with other countries, particularly the “Global South”. The Global South refers to developing, emerging or lower-income countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere.
How to regulate AI’s growing risks was another concern, Li said, adding that bottlenecks included an insufficient supply of AI chips and restrictions on talent exchange. “Overall global AI governance is still fragmented. Countries have great differences particularly in terms of areas such as regulatory concepts, institutional rules,” he said.
“We should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible.”
SHANGHAI HEADQUARTERS
The three-day Shanghai conference brings together industry leaders and policymakers at a time of escalating technological competition between China and the United States the world’s two largest economies with AI emerging as a key battleground.