SHANGHAI:
China’s Premier Li Qiang warned Saturday that artificial intelligence development must be weighed against the security risks, saying global consensus was urgently needed even as the tech race between Beijing and Washington shows no sign of abating.
His remarks came just days after US President Donald Trump unveiled an aggressive low-regulation strategy aimed at cementing US dominance in the fast-moving field, promising to “remove red tape and onerous regulation” that could hinder private sector AI development.
Opening the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Saturday, Li emphasised the need for governance and open-source development, announcing the establishment of a Chinese-led body for international AI cooperation.
“The risks and challenges brought by artificial intelligence have drawn widespread attention… How to find a balance between development and security urgently requires further consensus from the entire society,” the premier said.
He gave no further details about the newly announced organisation, though state media later reported “the preliminary consideration” was that it would be headquartered in Shanghai.
The organisation would “promote global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits”, state news agency Xinhua reported, without elaborating on its set-up or mechanisms.
At a time when AI is being integrated across virtually all industries, its uses have raised major questions, including about the spread of misinformation, its impact on employment and the potential loss of technological control.
In a speech at WAIC on Saturday, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Geoffrey Hinton compared the situation to keeping “a very cute tiger cub as a pet”.
To survive, he said, you need to ensure you can train it not to kill you when it grows up.
The enormous strides AI technology has made in recent years have seen it move to the forefront of the US-China rivalry.
Premier Li said China would “actively promote” the development of open-source AI, adding Beijing was willing to share advances with other countries, particularly developing ones.
“If we engage in technological monopolies, controls and blockage, artificial intelligence will become the preserve of a few countries and a few enterprises,” he said.
Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu warned against “unilateralism and protectionism” at a later meeting.
Washington has expanded its efforts in recent years to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, concerned that they can be used to advance Beijing’s military systems and erode US tech dominance.
Li, in his speech, highlighted “insufficient supply of computing power and chips” as a bottleneck to AI progress.
