Chinese President Xi Jinping took centrestage at a meeting of Apec leaders to push a proposal for a global body to govern artificial intelligence and position China as an alternative to the United States on trade cooperation.
The comments yesterday were the first by the Chinese leader on an initiative Beijing unveiled this year, while the United States has rejected efforts to regulate AI in international bodies.
Xi said a World Artifical Intelligence Cooperation Organisation could set governance rules and boost cooperation, making AI a “public good for the international community”.
In remarks published by Xinhua, Xi added, “Artificial intelligence is of great significance for future development and should be made for the benefit of people in all countries and regions.”
Chinese officials have said the organisation could be based in the commercial hub of Shanghai.
US President Donald Trump did not attend the Apec leaders’ summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, flying back to Washington directly after a meeting with Xi.
The two leaders’ talks yielded a one-year deal to partially roll back trade and technology controls.
In Trump’s absence, analysts had expected Xi to use the Apec meeting to promote China as champion for its own brand of multilateral cooperation on trade and economic development.
While advanced chips made by California-based Nvidia are central to the AI boom, China-based developer DeepSeek has rolled out lower-cost models taken up by Beijing in a push for what it calls “algorithmic sovereignty”.
Xi also urged Apec to promote the “free circulation” of green technologies, a cluster of industries from batteries to solar panels that China dominates. — Reuters
