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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

US, China can work together on AI despite the barriers, expert tells forum

  • Access and safety are areas where the nations can cooperate, Chinese academic says at Asia Society event
  • But former CIA official says that ‘right now, American academics are very gun-shy of doing things with China’

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The United States and China are locked in an intense technological battle. Photo: Reuters
Kawala Xie
The United States and China can cooperate on artificial intelligence despite the growing barriers to scientific collaboration, an AI policy expert told a forum in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Xue Lan, director of Tsinghua University’s Institute for AI International Governance, said at an event co-hosted by the Asia Society and The Centre on Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong that the two nations could work together on access to the emerging technology as well as safety.

“Certainly the US, China can collaborate and to ensure that there’s a global platform and a framework to ensure that … AI could be used safely. And you know, whatever the risks that we may have can be guarded against,” Xue said during a panel discussion on US-China diplomacy.

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“Another potential area that the US and China can work together on AI is how to increase, to improve the capacity of developing countries in accessing and using AI technologies.”

He said AI would have a huge impact on the world economy, and without access to the technologies it could worsen problems in developing nations.

Artificial intelligence is expected to have a major impact on the world economy. Photo: Reuters
Artificial intelligence is expected to have a major impact on the world economy. Photo: Reuters

Xue was among more than a dozen top academics, economists and former officials at the event held in memory of Jeffrey Bader and David Dollar, both influential experts on US-China relations who died last year.

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