China calls for joint development in AI to reduce risk of technology gap between rich and poor countries

China’s AI industry continues to grow, with core activities in the sector valued at US$7bil and the number of AI enterprises exceeding 2,600 at the end of 2019. The conference attracted executives from nearly 500 companies and institutions, including US firms Intel, Tesla, Microsoft and Nvidia, as well as scientists and scholars. — SCMP

Chinese government officials and some of the country’s top business leaders have called for stronger global collaboration in artificial intelligence at a prominent AI summit that opened in Shanghai on Thursday despite push back from the Trump administration that sees Beijing’s tech ambitions as a threat to US economic and national security.

“[We should] adhere to deeper and broader open cooperation and jointly build and make good use of the cutting-edge innovative technologies,” Miao Wei, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in a recorded video on the opening of the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) which kicked off on Thursday in Shanghai.