While browsing through Concordia AI’s report (linked by @Mitchell_Porter ), I stumbled on an essay by Yin Hejun (China’s Minister of Science and Technology) from ~1y ago, which Concordia’s AI Safety in China Substack summarizes as:
Background: Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) YIN Hejun (阴和俊) published an essay on AI in CAC’s magazine, “China Cyberspace (中国网信).” The essay outlines China’s previous efforts in AI development, key accomplishments, and plans moving forward.
Discussion of governance and dialogue: Generally, the essay seeks to emphasize the importance of balance in innovation and legislation, suggesting that China should “place equal emphasis on development and governance” and “avoid suppressing innovation due to improper governance.” It also discussed AI ethics governance, with one paragraph citing China’s recent science and technology (S&T) ethics-related policies and noting that China has been advancing AI legislation in an orderly manner. Another paragraph suggested expanding international cooperation on AI governance, favorably referencing the UK AI Safety Summit and noting several dialogues between China and the UK, France, and Global South. At the same time, the article also prominently argued that AI is the “largest variable in the restructuring of overall national competitiveness and the new focus of global great power competition.”
Implications: This essay is a microcosm of the Chinese government’s complex attitude towards AI. It sees tremendous potential in AI’s development for national power and social benefit and also advocates for ethical governance, in part because the latter is viewed as compatible with development. Simultaneously, China is open to international cooperation and also views AI development as a strategic priority and an area where it aims to establish a leading position. Discussion on frontier AI safety is mostly lacking from the article.
➢ MOST Minister YIN Hejun’s (阴和俊) essay in a CAC-overseen magazine highlights the complexity and ambivalence of these views. - The essay argues that AI is key to national power, as the “largest variable in the restructuring of overall national competitiveness and the new focus of global great power competition.” - Yin called for improving the AI governance system under the idea that “development is the greatest security” and also to put “equal emphasis on development and governance.”— At the same time, he supports promoting AI ethics and expanding international cooperation on AI governance.
I don’t speak Chinese, so I Google-translated the essay to skim/read it. It seems to fit the narrative of “China wants to accelerate AI just as it would like to accelerate any useful technology, but they’re not particularly buying into singularity/AGI/ASI.” Something that got Google-translated into “universal AI” is mentioned 2 times, 1 time for “general AI”, mostly in the context of language models, but without much elaboration. There’s no “let’s get AI that can do everything for us”, more like “let’s get AI so that we are better at this and this and that”.
(Although some local Chinese governments did announce policies on “AGI”: 1, 2.)
(I weakly predict that I’m going to be using this thread as a dump for whatever new info on this topic I find worth sharing.)
Complex and ambivalent views seem like the correct sort of views for governments to hold at this point.
I don’t speak Chinese, so I Google-translated the essay to skim/read it.
I also don’t speak Chinese, but my impression is that machine translations of high-context languages like Chinese need to be approached with considerable caution—a lot of context on (eg) past guidance from the CCP may be needed to interpret what they’re saying there. I’m only ~70% on that, though, happy to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable on the subject.
While browsing through Concordia AI’s report (linked by @Mitchell_Porter ), I stumbled on an essay by Yin Hejun (China’s Minister of Science and Technology) from ~1y ago, which Concordia’s AI Safety in China Substack summarizes as:
And in Concordia’s slides:
I don’t speak Chinese, so I Google-translated the essay to skim/read it. It seems to fit the narrative of “China wants to accelerate AI just as it would like to accelerate any useful technology, but they’re not particularly buying into singularity/AGI/ASI.” Something that got Google-translated into “universal AI” is mentioned 2 times, 1 time for “general AI”, mostly in the context of language models, but without much elaboration. There’s no “let’s get AI that can do everything for us”, more like “let’s get AI so that we are better at this and this and that”.
(Although some local Chinese governments did announce policies on “AGI”: 1, 2.)
(I weakly predict that I’m going to be using this thread as a dump for whatever new info on this topic I find worth sharing.)
Complex and ambivalent views seem like the correct sort of views for governments to hold at this point.
I also don’t speak Chinese, but my impression is that machine translations of high-context languages like Chinese need to be approached with considerable caution—a lot of context on (eg) past guidance from the CCP may be needed to interpret what they’re saying there. I’m only ~70% on that, though, happy to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable on the subject.