The United States and China have made a significant agreement to hold their first-ever top-level AI talks, which is a milestone in the technological clash between the two world giants. Saying this, the U.S. Secretary of State Antonio Blinken confirmed it during his press conference in Beijing. The discussions will be centered on addressing risks and safety issues of artificial intelligence and are in the next “coming weeks.”
U.S.-China inter-governmental dialogue on AI
He stated in the press release, “Earlier today, we agreed to hold the first US PRC talks on artificial intelligence to be held in the coming weeks, to share our respective views on risks and safety concerns around advanced AI and how best to manage them.”
Despite all the ongoing uncertainties about TikTok future, the Secretary did not disclose any details about the meetings he had with diplomats. It seems that the upcoming issue of AI mostly deals with strategic and broader implications, unlike those that involve software deployments.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that AI settlement will be discussed and, above all, has revisited the five-point joint statement between the two countries. This Agreement will be about the process of the United States and China relations improvement, increasing the flow of cultural interactions and further discussions on international and regional matters. The model with such a high level of detail emphasizes the complexity of bilateral interaction and calls for the topic related to AI to be discussed in more depth. The phenomenon of AI is only one example.
Implications and significance
The AI competition between the USA and China has been constantly discussed with respect to the growing importance of technology in geopolitics. Both countries have invested large amounts of money in the study and development of AI systems and have issued warnings and concerns on AI technology race with negative implications. In light of these circumstances, the forthcoming high-level talks are a chance for mutual concerns to be raised, options of cooperation to be looked for, and perhaps to de-escalate the tensions in the AI domain.
The US export restriction of AI chips to China has had a profound effect on Nvidia Corp., a leading semiconductor manufacturer in the industry. Despite these challenges, China has proven its aptness in self-reliance by making its own chipsets, which demonstrates that it is a determined country regarding the issue of technology. The coming AI dialogue is anticipated to show the momentum of the AI race as well as the prospect of cooperation in determining the further development of the world in terms of the AI development side.
Additionally, the US pointed to the participation of China in Russia’s improvement of military capabilities, which was directly linked to the Ukrainian issue. Moreover, the US and its allies have objected to what they have perceived as China’s trade practices, “China alone is producing more than 100% of global demand” for green products,” which is not fair and consequently has resulted in flooding of the international markets with low-priced goods including greener technologies such as electric vehicles.
This article first appeared as a press release from the U.S. Department of State.
