Chinese Leaders Prioritize AI Safety During Major Economic Policy Summit
Artificial intelligence was mentioned multiple times in the resolution for China’s Third Plenum, last week’s major agenda-setting gathering of China’s leaders centered on economic policy. The resolution discusses how AI should be harnessed for economic growth, cooperation with developing countries, and protecting minors online. But the Third Plenum was most focused on AI safety—and the technology’s implications for China’s national security.
Xi Jinping’s full explanation of the Third Plenum’s outcomes includes a proposal to create an AI Safety oversight mechanism (“establish an AI regulatory system” is a closer translation of the original). In language familiar to anyone who has reviewed U.S. official proclamations on the subject, like President Biden’s Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI, Xi calls on China to “better leverage science and technology to safeguard national security.”
Governance-oriented leaders around the world increasingly believe they have a responsibility to try to make AI “safe”—even if their efforts come at a cost for industry. They don’t yet and may never, however, agree on how high a cost would be tolerable or, more foundationally, the details of what constitutes “safety.”
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