AFP, DALIAN, China
The world risks “losing control” of frontier technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) if governments are too slow to regulate it, Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said at the “Summer Davos” yesterday.Fears are growing of AI-driven disruption to labor markets and the security risks it poses — from use in conflict to breaches of cyberdefenses and the potential creation of new bioweapons.“The speed of technological progress is unprecedented,” Li said in a speech at a World Economic Forum event in Dalian, China, adding that AI has boosted “innovation efficiency.”
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China, yesterday.
“However, we cannot ignore increasingly prominent risks of losing control of technology and ethical lapses,” he said. “If governance in this area fails to keep pace, there could be serious consequences.”Li’s speech at the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” offered the chance to deliver a message to the group of tech and business leaders in attendance.
He characterized China’s economy as a “safe haven” in a world struggling with “multiple shocks, including global energy shortages, and severe disruptions to production and supply chains.”The country has “injected a valuable dose of certainty into an increasingly uncertain world”, Li said.However, complicating matters is Beijing’s relationship with Washington.Graham Allison, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, told reporters in Dalian that a potential war between the US and China is very much on the table.Allison is known for coining the term “Thucydides trap,” a political theory that describes an increased likelihood of war when a rising new power competes with an established power.However, recent engagement between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is reason for optimism that a war can be avoided, Allison said.At a summit in Beijing last month, Xi asked Trump if the countries could “transcend the so-called Thucydides trap and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations.”Xi “clearly gets it” and his mention of the obscure historical concept “wasn’t by accident,” Allison said.
