U.S. urged to enhance cooperation with China on AI

BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Amid growing competition in artificial intelligence (AI) development, experts attending the 2024 Beijing Forum have emphasized the need to enhance the collaboration between China and the United States in the field of AI.

China and the United States are among the leading developers in AI, with top-notch AI labs and extensive language models surpassing other global counterparts, said Graham Webster, a research scholar at Stanford University, when attending a panel session of the forum.

Webster said the complete decoupling between the two sides would be a bad outcome. "There would be a great loss of efficiency and innovation," he said.

He said the two sides should maintain government-to-government dialogue on AI risk and safety, and collaborate with a diverse global community, including scholars and various cultural perspectives.

In addition, he said that leading countries like China and the United States must spread the benefits, for example, medical breakthroughs, derived from AI technologies.

Karman Lucero, a research fellow of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale University, highlighted the growing interest among scholars worldwide in China's progress in AI development.

Lucero emphasized the valuable lessons that can be learned from China's experience, because China has an ecosystem in the AI space that is vibrant and diverse.

Lucero said the best case scenario to foster mutual understanding and avoid problems between the two sides hinges on dialogue -- not just government discussions, but also track-two dialogues and people-to-people exchanges.

The United States has in recent years mounted efforts to suppress China by implementing several measures to limit cooperation with China in AI.

This May, China and the United States held the first meeting of inter-governmental dialogue on AI in Geneva, to exchange views on the technological risks of AI, global governance and other issues of respective concern.

Later in June, the Second China-U.S. Track 1.5 Dialogue took place in Beijing, during which participants from both countries reached a consensus to further deepen their cooperation in the field of AI.

Lei Shaohua, an associate professor with the School of International Studies at Peking University, called for efforts to prevent technology from causing economic fragmentation.

He said that a "bottom-up" mode of exchange and cooperation between Chinese and U.S. universities, think tanks, government research institutions, and AI companies will become a "ballast."

Held at Peking University, the panel session with the theme "Digitalization and Intellectuals: The Convergence of Multiple Disciplines in the Era of AI," is part of this year's Beijing Forum. The three-day academic forum ending on Sunday is attended by more than 500 experts and scholars from over 30 countries and regions.