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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Kissinger warns China and US to guard against all-out artificial intelligence conflict

  • Former US secretary of state says the US must maintain high performance in artificial intelligence
  • Kissinger tells German newspaper those believing China’s foreign policy must be confronted at all levels will generate ‘a maximum of resistance’

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Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger meets China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2018. In an interview with a German newspaper this week, Kissinger said public opinion had become convinced that China was “an inherent enemy”. Photo: AFP
Sarah Zheng
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned that competition between the US and China must not escalate to all-out hi-tech conflict, calling for policies to prevent Chinese hegemony while maintaining peaceful coexistence between the two nations.
In an interview published this week in German newspaper Die Welt, Kissinger – who played a key role in paving the way for China and the US to establish formal diplomatic relations in 1979 – said it was critical to prevent the rivalry between China and the West from becoming an all-out conflict in artificial intelligence.

At 97, Kissinger has declared himself a student of AI, saying “it is fascinating not only economically, but also philosophically, because it will change the nature of human thinking about reality, which will affect all of us”.

“The US needs to maintain a high level of performance in AI,” he said. 

However, he said it would be erroneous to assume China would automatically be superior to the US in the AI arena.

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“While both sides may have the theoretical capability of winning, neither side chooses to exercise it – they should limit it by some kind of understanding,” he said. “Strive for it, because the alternative of an all-out conflict strains the imagination. The United States must always have an adequate defence. But in the hi-tech world, it must also work for coexistence.”

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