China’s biggest AI forum kicks off in Shanghai under cloud of latest US export ban
- Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said in opening remarks that AI talent gathered in the city accounted for one third of those in the entire country
- The speaker roster for this year’s AI forum, however, was relatively low key compared to past events
China kicked off its biggest artificial intelligence (AI) forum on Thursday, promoting potential applications of the technology in China’s huge market, although the gathering comes amid an intensifying US-China technology war.
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference, held annually in Shanghai since 2018, attracts China’s leading tech firms such as e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding, gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings, search engine Baidu.com, and telecoms national champion Huawei Technologies Co. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Representatives from US tech firms such as Qualcomm also attend the event.
However, the three-day event, which has a metaverse theme under the slogan “intelligent connectivity and infinite multiverse”, is under the cloud of an increasingly bifurcating tech market between China and the US.
US chip makers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia, leaders in producing semiconductors for AI applications, have been told by Washington to stop selling certain high end chips to China, a development that came on the eve of the Shanghai event.
On Thursday, China’s foreign ministry blasted the ban as “technology hegemonism”. Separately, Nvidia was named one of the five winners of the top prize offered by the Shanghai event, the Super AI Leader award, for its Omniverse platform for 3D simulation.