Xi Pitches China as AI Partner to Developing World Amid Tech Race With US
Chinese leader calls for global cooperation as American-led export curbs squeeze Beijing's access to advanced technology
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for greater international cooperation on artificial intelligence, telling a conference in Shanghai that AI development "should not be a solo performance by a single country," according to Al Jazeera.
Xi pitched China as a partner to the developing world, pledging to provide developing countries with 5,000 opportunities in AI training and seminar programs and to build AI cooperation with various international blocs, CNBC reported. He also warned against unspecified risks and what he characterized as security overreach in the technology's development.
The appeal comes as American-led restrictions have cut off China's access to some of the world's most advanced technologies, according to NPR, spurring Beijing's push to build its own technological capabilities and intensifying the broader competition between the world's two largest economies.
Xi's outreach to developing nations signals an effort by Beijing to position itself as an alternative technology partner for countries that may otherwise rely on American firms and standards, as the U.S.-China rivalry over artificial intelligence increasingly plays out beyond the two countries' borders.
— Compiled from reporting by NPR, CNBC and Al Jazeera.