ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) means different things to different people: risk and opportunity, job losses and job creation, energy waste and economic growth, climate disaster and future of the planet. Debates on the shape of AI governance are equally fraught.

That debate became more interesting recently with the launch of the World AI Cooperation Organisation in Shanghai. Chinese President Xi Jinping made the geopolitical implications of global AI governance explicit at the launch, calling for multilateral cooperation on AI, and rejecting AI dominance by one country (this appeared to be a barb at the US; recall comments last year by the White House AI policy adviser at the India AI Summit, prioritising US ‘dominance’ of AI through the global use of the American AI stack).

Xi’s attendance at the moot highlights how central AI now is to China’s diplomatic and industrial strategies. Seeing a gap created by US isolationism and heavy-handed protectionism, China has stepped in. It is advocating for countries to share technologies, amplify capacity building efforts and, most importantly, coalesce around shared demands for global AI governance.

The rallying cry is particularly targeted towards emerging economies in the........

© Dawn