Chinese leader Xi Jinping urges country to seize opportunities in artificial intelligence to modernise industry
- On Friday, Xi said China should seize opportunities in AI to build a ‘holistic, advanced, and harm-free’ modern industrial system
- At an April 28 Politburo meeting, Chinese leaders concluded that China must ‘pay attention to the development of artificial general intelligence’
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of developing China’s ability in artificial intelligence (AI) for the second time in less than a fortnight, as the Sino-US tech race in AI and semiconductors ratchets up.
During a key economic meeting on Friday, Xi said China should leverage its abilities in AI to help modernisation of the country’s industrial system, state news Xinhua reported.
Xi said China should seize opportunities presented by new scientific and technological breakthroughs, such as AI, to build a “holistic, advanced, and harm-free” modern industrial system. The remarks were made during a meeting of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs.
It was the second time in recent weeks that Xi has emphasised the development of AI. His comments come amid ongoing US moves to slow China’s development of AI by restricting China-bound exports of advanced semiconductors such as CPUs and GPUs, which are vital for training sophisticated AI models.
“Accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system bolstered by the real economy is crucial for us to gain strategic initiative in future development and international competition,” Xi said during the meeting, which was attended by other top level Chinese leaders.
The US government is also paying attention to AI. President Joe Biden met with CEOs of top artificial intelligence companies including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google on Thursday, making it clear to them they must ensure their products are safe before being publicly deployed.