China hits out at ‘a certain country’ it says is hindering the tech development of others

At UN Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence, ambassador Zhang Jun also calls for ‘non-discriminatory environment’ with equal access
He says all nations should ‘oppose the use of AI to seek military hegemony or to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries’

Diplomacy

Cyril Ip

Published: 5:59pm, 19 Jul 2023

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China accused “a certain developed country” of trying to create “exclusive clubs” and barriers for others advancing their technologies, at a United Nations Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence.

During the discussion in New York on Tuesday, China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun also called for a “non-discriminatory environment” in which developing countries have “equal access and utilisation” of AI.

“A certain developed country, in order to seek technological hegemony, seeks to build exclusive small clubs with various excuses and actions, maliciously obstruct the technological development of other countries, and artificially create technological barriers,” Zhang said, adding that China firmly opposed these moves.

At the session on the opportunities and risks AI poses to international peace and security, Zhang said the technology could be used to bridge development gaps between the Global North and South.

“The international community should work together to ensure that developing countries equally enjoy the development dividends brought by AI technology and continuously enhance their representation, voice and rights of decision-making in this field,” Zhang said.

He said AI’s “fundamental purpose” should be to boost global development and improve humanity’s common well-being, and that the Security Council should try to find ways for the technology to be used in conflict resolution.

“All countries should uphold a responsible defence policy, oppose the use of AI to seek military hegemony or to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries, and avoid the abuse, unintentional misuse or even intentional misuse of AI weapon systems,” the Chinese envoy said.

The remarks came days after Beijing released new rules to manage AI developers that are more supportive after years of curbs and constraints on the tech industry.

Premier Li Qiang also sent a strong signal last week that Beijing backs the development of platform companies like Baidu and Alibaba, which have launched numerous AI models. Li said the government would encourage regular communication with these tech giants to improve policies and support sustainable growth. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

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Some of Beijing’s policies on AI include limiting the spread of deepfakes – images, audio or video manipulated to look and sound like someone else – as well as rules on chatbots, or computer programs that can understand complex queries and provide concise answers.

In June, US Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said China was “very much ahead of the game in terms of self-regulating AI within their own nation-state” and that Washington needed to act and introduce its own measures soon.

At the Security Council meeting, Zhang urged the international community to “put ethics first” and consider the technology’s potential impact. “Efforts should be made to gradually establish and improve ethical norms, laws, regulations and policy systems for AI,” Zhang said, adding that countries should be allowed to establish governance systems in line with their own national conditions.