In order to establish common ground on frameworks for the responsible and safe development of artificial intelligence, Beijing will collaborate with other nations, including the United States, according to China’s vice minister of technology.
In an official opening ceremony held at Bletchley Park in England on Wednesday, the U.K. held a summit on AI safety.
China is willing to improve dialogue and communication in AI safety with all parties, according to Wu Zhaohui, vice minister of science and technology in China.
As stated in an official event translation, China will support an international mechanism [on AI], increasing participation and a governance framework founded on broad consensus that benefits the people and creates a community with a shared future for all.
The statements are made at a moment when Beijing and the United States are embroiled in a heated technology dispute.
China has been imposing its own regulations on generative AI, a unique type of AI that is trained on enormous amounts of data to produce new written and visual content that resembles human inputs. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are creating their own laws governing the technology.
The “Bletchley Declaration,” which China and 27 other nations signed on Wednesday, is a significant AI agreement that fosters understanding of the opportunities and risks presented by frontier AI and the necessity of governments cooperating to address the biggest challenges.
According to the U.K. government, as part of this, nations agreed to the urgent need to comprehend potential risks and work together to manage them through a new cooperative global effort.
China and the United States have long been at odds over technology. This year, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new trade restrictions on the sale of advanced H800 and A800 chips from U.S. tech giant Nvidia to China, intensifying the battle.
This has put a lot of strain on Chinese generative AI developers, a large number of whom are dependent on Nvidia chips.
The Chinese government officials’ decision to attend the U.K. AI summit on Wednesday is a “massive” gesture, according to Michelle Donelan, the U.K. minister of science, innovation, and technology.
Donelan stated, “We do… at least have to try to engage them in this conversation.” I always link it to the changes in climate. We won’t have the desired effect if each of us acts independently and in isolation rather than in unison.
AI is exactly the same, she continued. It disregards boundaries imposed by location.
The United Kingdom seeks to promote international cooperation between China and its other major allies. This has proven to be a difficult problem with Beijing, whom the US has accused of posing threats to national security with regard to its vital technologies, including artificial intelligence. China refutes the accusations.
After obtaining voluntary commitments from American AI companies that have committed to safe, trustworthy, and secure development of AI, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo stated earlier in the day that the country is demonstrating incredible leadership in its efforts to ensure AI is developed more safely.
She continued, “We want to increase research and collaboration, information sharing, and policy alignment globally.”
In addition, Raimondo stated that the United States would seek to establish an AI safety institute, following the United Kingdom’s announcement last week of plans to undertake a similar project.
Upcoming AI summits
Donelan made it apparent that the discussion about artificial intelligence will continue beyond the U.K. summit.
The tech minister of the United Kingdom announced during Wednesday’s opening plenary that there will be two more summits: one in South Korea in six months and another in France the following year.
Additionally, the government declared that it would invest £225 million ($273 million) in the Isambard-AI AI supercomputer.
One of the strongest supercomputers in Europe is anticipated to be this one.
Yet, business executives and leaders who were expecting the summit to yield specific action items have been let down.
As of right now, summit proposals have not actually included any policy measures, only a commitment to achieving worldwide consensus on the standards and frameworks required for the advancement of AI.
Chief privacy officer of the Indian IT behemoth Wipro, Ivana Bartoletti, stated that the Bletchley Declaration was right to identify the risks associated with AI safety and to develop a common, scientific, and evidence-based understanding of those risks. She added that this understanding should be maintained as capabilities increase.
However, she continued, more work still needs to be done.
This is undoubtedly significant, but she expressed in an email on Wednesday that she hoped there would be actual teeth to these commitments when the Summit reconvenes in South Korea in six months.
