2025-07-29 03:58:00
China pitches global AI governance group as the US goes it alone | CNN Business
China has proposed a global AI governance plan during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, aiming to foster international cooperation amid growing competition with the US. Chinese Premier Li Qiang highlighted the need for a coordinated global framework to address regulatory disparities and prevent technological monopolies. The move comes as China加大对人工智能的投入,包括超过5000家AI公司和核心AI行业价值6000亿人民币(840亿美元),并已缩小与美国在AI领域的差距。同时,东盟秘书长也呼吁加强AI治理以应对潜在威胁,并强调国际合作的重要性。
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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 thatâs become a key bargaining chip in trade talks between the economic powerhouses.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang unveiled Chinaâs vision for future AI oversight at the World AI Conference (
WAIC
), an annual gathering in Shanghai of tech titans from more than 40 countries.
âOverall, global AI governance is still fragmented. Countries have great differences, particularly in terms of areas such as regulatory concepts, institutional rules,â
said Li in his speech on Saturday
. âWe should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible.â
Liâs remarks came just days after
the Trump administration unveiled
its
28-page AI action plan
, which aims to remove âbureaucratic red tapeâ 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 â a component vital for powering and training AI, which is currently causing a shortage in China.
âKey resources and capabilities are concentrated in a few countries and a few enterprises,â
said Li in his speech on Saturday
. âIf we engage in technological monopoly, controls and restrictions, AI will become an exclusive game for a small number of countries and enterprises.â
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 âvery close to a deal with China,â 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)
.
Itâs still a fraction of what the US spends â private AI investment in the US reached $109.1 billion in 2024, around 12 times Chinaâs $9.3 billion â but Chinaâs 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
DeepSeekâs new AI model R1
caused chaos on Wall Street
and demonstrated Chinaâs 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 Moonshotâs 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 OpenAIâs models.
The rapid development of Chinaâs 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 â
robust governance
â of artificial intelligence to mitigate potential threats, including misinformation, deepfakes, and cybersecurity threats.
âThese developments demand urgent, coordinated action from the international community to ensure AI serves human welfare and social good,â he said in his speech at the conference, adding that AI implementation in ASEAN could further expand the regionâs rapidly growing digital economy and âincrease the regionâs GDP by 10-18%.â
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
reiterated
the call for international collaboration, explicitly calling on the US and China to work together.
âAs the largest and most significant economic entities in the world, the United States and China should collaborate on these issues,â said Schmidt at WAIC. âWe 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.â
Other speakers included computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes referred to as âthe godfather of AIâ 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 â which in the past has been attended by key figures in the tech industry, including Elon Musk and Jack Ma â 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,â¯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
, Alibabaâs first
AI-powered smart glasses
,
new popcorn-serving bipedal robot models
from Keenon Robotics, and
cute companion âpetâ robots
from
Shenzhen startup ZTE
.
Other key exhibitions at the three-day event included Unitreeâs
G1 boxing robot
, which quickly caught the attention of visitors and became a
fan favorite
on social media, dancingâ¯
robot dogs
developed by China Mobile, and PsiBotâs
mahjong-playing humanoid
.