China calls for joint development in AI to reduce risk of technology gap between rich and poor countries
- China’s AI industry continues to grow, with core activities in the sector valued at US$7 billion and the number of AI enterprises exceeding 2,600 at the end of 2019
- The conference attracted executives from nearly 500 companies and institutions, including US firms Intel, Tesla, Microsoft and Nvidia, as well as scientists and scholars
Chinese government officials and some of the country’s top business leaders have called for stronger global collaboration in artificial intelligence at a prominent AI summit that opened in Shanghai on Thursday, despite a pushback from the Trump administration that sees Beijing’s tech ambitions as a threat to US economic and national security.
“[We should] adhere to deeper and broader open cooperation and jointly build and make good use of the cutting-edge innovative technologies,” Miao Wei, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in a recorded video on the opening of the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which kicked off on Thursday in Shanghai.
“We support relevant research institutes and enterprises both at home and abroad, to achieve breakthroughs in theory and in practice as soon as possible,” he said.
Miao praised the current AI innovation in the country, including its application in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, where intelligent imaging, robots and temperature measuring systems have played an active role in preventing the virus from spreading.
Jack Ma, founder of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, said “technology shouldn’t have boundaries”.
“Today, many of the world’s problems result from the fact that [we] don’t respect each other’s differences and disagreements,” said Ma, who appeared as a projected hologram on stage. “The earlier we team up, the earlier we'll win.”