Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang will be seen on screen at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Shanghai on July 26, 2025.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang warned on Saturday that the development of artificial intelligence must be weighed against security risks, saying a global consensus is urgently needed, despite the tech race between Beijing and Washington showing no signs of decline.
His remarks came days after President Donald Trump announced an aggressive low-regulation strategy aimed at solidifying our control in the fast moving field.
Li, which opened the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Saturday, has highlighted the need for governance and open source development and announced the establishment of a China-led organization for international AI cooperation.
“The risks and challenges posed by artificial intelligence have attracted widespread attention… How to find a balance between development and security requires further consensus from society as a whole,” the Prime Minister said.
Li said China will “actively promote” the development of open source AI, adding that Beijing is willing to share progress with other countries, particularly those currently developing.
“When you engage in technical monopoly, control and blockage, artificial intelligence becomes the protection of a small number of countries and a few businesses,” he said.
“Only by adhering to openness, sharing and equity to intelligence can more countries and groups benefit from (AI).
The Premier highlighted the “slow supply of computing power and chips” as a bottleneck.
Washington has expanded its efforts in recent years to curb the export of cutting-edge chips to China, which are concerned that they could be used to advance Beijing’s military system and erode US technological control.
China has made AI the pillar of its technical independence plan, and the government has pledged numerous measures to boost the sector.
In January, Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled an AI model that runs the top US systems despite using powerful chips.
“Pet Tiger Cub”
When AI is integrated into virtually every industry, its uses raised major ethical issues, ranging from the spread of misinformation to the impact on employment, or the potential loss of technical management.
In a speech at WAIC on Saturday, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Jeffrey Hinton compared the situation to maintaining “a very cute tiger turnip as a pet.”
“To survive,” he said, you need to be able to train it so that you don’t kill you when it grows up.
In a video message at the WAIC opening ceremony, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said AI governance would be a “definitive test of international cooperation.”
At the ceremony, the French President’s AI envoy Anne Bouverot highlighted the “urgent need” for global action.
At the AI Summit in Paris in February, 58 countries, including China, France and India, as well as the European and African Union Commission, are calling for greater coordination of AI governance.
However, the US warned against “overregulation” and refused to sign the summit appeal against “open”, “comprehensive” and “ethical” AI alongside the UK.
©2025 AFP
Quote: China is seeking global consensus on the balance of AI development, security (2025, July 26th), obtained from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-07-urges-consensus-ai.html on July 26th, 2025.
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