Brian Y. S. Wong

Opinion | 3 low-hanging fruit for US-China cooperation on AI

Common ground can be found on mitigating AI’s impact on jobs and societies, holding back military AI and avoiding unintended perverse consequences

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Brian Y. S. Wong

Published: 5:30am, 14 Jun 2024Updated: 5:41am, 14 Jun 2024

Last month, China and the US held a high-level intergovernmental dialogue in Geneva on managing artificial intelligence (AI) risks, the first of its kind.

The Chinese delegation was led by Yang Tao, director general of the foreign ministry’s North American and Oceanian affairs department, while the American side was helmed by Tarun Chhabra, the point man on technology at the National Security Council, and Seth Center, the acting special envoy for critical and emerging technology at the State Department.

The personnel choices are a sign that both sides recognise the possibility of spillover from AI and the geopolitical significance, and are committed to fielding policymakers and academic experts to take part in robust, candid closed-door talks.

Given the escalation of technological competition across the Pacific, it is tempting to see AI as an area where excessive caution and hype over security and politico-ideological control render it impossible for the two administrations to see eye to eye.

Yet this view ignores the vast areas in which Beijing and Washington can still work together through government-to-government and people-to-people engagement.

Even while comprehensive agreements on the regulation of dual-use AI remain elusive – given domestic political intransigence, high strategic stakes and the US’ ratcheting up of pressure to contain China’s technological rise – both administrations can pragmatically cultivate a modus vivendi.