China proposes global AI co-operation organisation

Premier Li Qiang considers Shanghai as base for new body as rivalry with US increases

Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Reuters

China has 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.”

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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.

'Exclusive game'

During the three-day conference in Shanghai on Saturday, Mr Li said AI could become restricted to 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.

China will seek to propel AI development in the Global South, Mr Li said, according to a Bloomberg report.

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 new 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 conference on Saturday, Huawei Technologies debuted its CloudMatrix 384 AI computing system.

The Chinese technology giant is aiming to capture market share in the country's growing artificial intelligence sector.

Semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis has called the system "China’s answer to Nvidia GB200 NVL72", the US chipmaker's most advanced system-level product in the market.

"This solution competes directly with the GB200 NVL72, and in some metrics is more advanced than Nvidia’s rack scale solution," SemiAnalysis said in April. "The engineering advantage is at the system level, not just at the chip level, with innovation at the networking, optics, and software layers."