Latest news with #global governance
CNN
a day ago
- Business
- CNN
China pitches global AI governance group as the US goes it alone
China has proposed a global action plan to govern artificial intelligence, just days after the United States unveiled its own plan to promote US dominance of the rapidly growing field that's become a key bargaining chip in trade talks between the economic powerhouses. Chinese Premier Li Qiang unveiled China's vision for future AI oversight at the World AI Conference (WAIC), an annual gathering in Shanghai of tech titans from more than 40 countries. 'Overall, global AI governance is still fragmented. Countries have great differences, particularly in terms of areas such as regulatory concepts, institutional rules,' said Li in his speech on Saturday. 'We should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible.' Li's remarks came just days after the Trump administration unveiled its 28-page AI action plan, which aims to remove 'bureaucratic red tape' and establish US dominance in the sector. While Li did not directly refer to the US in his speech, he alluded to the ongoing trade tensions between the two superpowers, which include American restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports — a component vital for powering and training AI, which is currently causing a shortage in China. 'Key resources and capabilities are concentrated in a few countries and a few enterprises,' said Li in his speech on Saturday. 'If we engage in technological monopoly, controls and restrictions, AI will become an exclusive game for a small number of countries and enterprises.' AI chips have become a key bargaining tool between US and China in trade negotiations, which continued this week with a meeting in Stockholm. Before the latest round of talks, both countries appeared to make concessions, with Washington lifting its ban on sales of a key Nvidia AI chip to China, and Beijing suspending its antitrust investigation into American chemical firm DuPont. Speaking from Scotland on Sunday, Trump said the US is 'very close to a deal with China,' but offered no further details. The current deadline for a deal expires on August 12. China has not been shy about promoting its AI ambitions: with more than 5,000 AI companies, and a core AI industry valued at 600 billion yuan ($84 billion) in April 2025, the nation is all-in on its tech rivalry with the US. This surge is being fueled by enormous government and private sector spending. Between 2013 and 2023, state venture capital firms invested an estimated $209 billion into AI-related businesses, according to research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private think tank based in Massachusetts, and this year alone, public sector spending on AI is expected to top 400 billion yuan ($56 billion). It's still a fraction of what the US spends — private AI investment in the US reached $109.1 billion in 2024, around 12 times China's $9.3 billion — but China's commitment to the AI race is evident in other ways. Since 2017, China has published more patents for generative AI inventions annually than all other countries combined, according to data from the World Intellectual Property Organization. All this investment is narrowing the gap between the US and China in the AI race. Earlier this year, the launch of one-year-old Chinese startup DeepSeek's new AI model R1 caused chaos on Wall Street and demonstrated China's technical capabilities by quickly outpacing models by Meta and Anthropic. It was allegedly developed for just $5.6 million, a fraction of the cost spent to make other models like ChatGPT (over $100 million) and Gemini (almost $200 million.) More recently, another startup Moonshot's Kimi K2 model released earlier this month also sent ripples in the AI community for its lower cost and capabilities that outperform some Google and OpenAI's models. The rapid development of China's AI market is even predicted to break even within the next few years, delivering a 52% return on investment as early as 2030, according to research from financial services firm Morgan Stanley. Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, also called for 'robust governance' of artificial intelligence to mitigate potential threats, including misinformation, deepfakes, and cybersecurity threats. 'These developments demand urgent, coordinated action from the international community to ensure AI serves human welfare and social good,' he said in his speech at the conference, adding that AI implementation in ASEAN could further expand the region's rapidly growing digital economy and 'increase the region's GDP by 10-18%.' Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt reiterated the call for international collaboration, explicitly calling on the US and China to work together. 'As the largest and most significant economic entities in the world, the United States and China should collaborate on these issues,' said Schmidt at WAIC. 'We have a vested interest to keep the world stable, keep the world not at war, to keep things peaceful, to make sure we have human control of these tools.' Other speakers included computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes referred to as 'the godfather of AI' and French AI researcher and special envoy Anne Bouverot. Launched by Singaporean think tank Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII), the conference has been held in Shanghai since its inception in 2018 and has been an important platform for Chinese companies to showcase their technology to the world. The event — which in the past has been attended by key figures in the tech industry, including Elon Musk and Jack Ma — features technology exhibitions, expert keynotes and discussion panels in a bid to further AI research, development and governance, something China hopes to play a leading role in. Attended by more than 800 companies, WAIC 2025 was again dominated by Chinese tech firms, including Tencent, Alibaba, SoftBank-backed Keenon Robotics and robotics startup Unitree, with appearances from several major US corporations like Tesla, Alphabet, and Amazon. Visitors explored tech innovations across 3,000 exhibits, which included over 100 new product debuts. They included new AI models from Tencent Holdings and Hong Kong-based company SenseTime, Alibaba's first AI-powered smart glasses, new popcorn-serving bipedal robot models from Keenon Robotics, and cute companion 'pet' robots from Shenzhen startup ZTE. Other key exhibitions at the three-day event included Unitree's G1 boxing robot, which quickly caught the attention of visitors and became a fan favorite on social media, dancing robot dogs developed by China Mobile, and PsiBot's mahjong-playing humanoid.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
China proposes global cooperation body on AI
SHANGHAI, July 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from The Chinese government has proposed the establishment of a world AI cooperation organization as part of its efforts to bolster open, inclusive and equitable artificial intelligence development and governance globally. Premier Li Qiang announced the initiative when addressing the opening ceremony of the 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai. Li emphasized the need for collaborative approaches to global AI governance to ensure that intelligent technologies are developed for the good of all. More than 1,000 high-level representatives from upwards of 40 countries and international organizations attended the opening ceremony of the three-day event, themed 'Global Solidarity in the AI Era'. Li said that the risks and challenges brought by AI development, such as machine hallucinations, deep fakes and AI proliferation, have aroused widespread attention. There is an urgent need to further consolidate a societal consensus on how to achieve a balance between development and security in the AI sector, he said. Li said greater emphasis should be placed on collective governance to ensure that AI ultimately benefits humanity. Given that global AI governance appears fragmented, it is essential to enhance coordination and alignment among countries around the world to establish a framework and rules for global AI governance with a broad consensus, he added. Noting that China places great importance on global AI governance and actively participates in promoting multilateral and bilateral cooperation in this regard, the premier said the nation is willing to offer more Chinese solutions to the international community and contribute more Chinese wisdom to global AI governance. In 2023, China proposed the Global AI Governance Initiative to promote an open, inclusive and fair approach to the development and governance of AI technologies. Last year, China proposed the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All to bridge the AI and digital divides, and to ensure the Global South benefits equitably from AI development. China actively promotes open source development, and is willing to collaborate with countries around the world to promote progress in software and hardware technologies, intensify open source initiatives, and collectively propel AI development to higher levels, Li said. Also on July 26, the conference adopted the Global AI Governance Action Plan, which calls on all parties to work in solidarity to advance AI development and governance. For more information: View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE
The National
4 days ago
- Business
- The National
China proposes global AI co-operation organisation
China proposed a new global artificial intelligence co-operation organisation amid a patchwork of regulations among countries, as Beijing's competition with the US over the critical technology heats up. Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday called for an international framework to regulate AI as its governance is fragmented, he said at the opening of the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. 'Global AI governance is still fragmented. Countries have great differences, particularly in terms of areas such as regulatory concepts, institutional rules,' Mr Li said. 'We should strengthen co-ordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible.' China's proposal comes just days after US President Donald Trump unveiled a three-pillar strategy that his administration refers to as America's AI Action Plan, after much anticipation from US technology companies. Accelerating artificial intelligence innovation, building AI infrastructure in the US and leading in AI diplomacy are the strategy's three main planks. The plan to export US AI technologies, for example through international data centre initiatives, may help the US to gain influence as other countries seek to join the race to provide computational power for AI. Hypothetically, it could also give the US a competitive edge over China, which also aims to be a dominant AI player. Beijing and Washington are locked in a rivalry with AI shaping up as a key battleground between the world's two biggest economies. An 'exclusive game' During the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference on Saturday, Mr Li said that AI could become an 'exclusive game' for a few nations and companies. 'Currently, key resources and capabilities are concentrated in a few countries and a few enterprises. If we engage in technological monopoly, controls and restrictions, AI will become an exclusive game for a small number of countries and enterprises,' Mr Li said. Going forward, China will seek to propel AI development in the Global South, Mr Li said, according to a Bloomberg report. China said it is considering Shanghai as the headquarters of the proposed global AI co-operation centre. Ma Zhaoxu, China's Vice Foreign Minister, told a gathering of representatives from more than 30 countries, including Russia, South Africa, Qatar, South Korea and Germany, that China wanted the organisation to promote pragmatic co-operation in AI and was considering putting its headquarters in Shanghai, Reuters reported. China's AI and semi-conductor sectors are showing strong growth, despite US export controls, according to a June report by Jefferies, an investment banking and capital market firm based in New York. Huawei debuts AI computing system At the same conference on Saturday, China's Huawei Technologies showed off an AI computing system, as the technology giant aims to capture market share in the country's growing AI sector. The CloudMatrix 384 system made its first public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. Semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis in April called it "China's Answer to Nvidia GB200 NVL72", the US chipmaker's most advanced system-level product currently available in the market. "This solution competes directly with the GB200 NVL72, and in some metrics is more advanced than Nvidia's rack scale solution. The engineering advantage is at the system level, not just at the chip level, with innovation at the networking, optics, and software layers," SemiAnalysis said in its April report.
Al Jazeera
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Brazil's FM: Is BRICS anti-West?
Mauro Vieira discusses whether BRICS is anti-West and whether global governance must change to reflect today's realities. In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera , Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira discusses Brazil's role in the expanding BRICS bloc and whether the group is positioning itself as a challenge to Western dominance. Speaking from Rio de Janeiro after the BRICS summit, Vieira explains President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's call for a global trade currency, critiques the current state of the United Nations, and explains what Brazil envisions for a more balanced multipolar world. With absent leaders, rising tensions, and growing ambitions, is BRICS reshaping global power, or just talking about it?
