China's Concerns Lie in a Different Kind of AI Risk
Kyle Chan is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on Chinese technology development and industrial policy, as well as the author of the industry newsletter "High Capacity."
TL;DR
- US AI executives, including those from Anthropic and OpenAI, have called for a global slowdown in AI development to address safety risks.
- China's AI companies are powerful, and their participation is seen as crucial for any slowdown.
- China's concerns about AI differ from the US; they are less focused on existential threats and more on political and social risks.
- Chinese regulators are concerned about AI creating deepfakes, causing social unrest, or being used for political manipulation.
- China's current AI regulations focus on these societal risks, requiring government filing and testing of new AI models.
- Both the US and China share concerns about AI-driven cyberattacks and the potential for AI systems to go out of control.
- Despite mutual suspicion, shared concerns about cybersecurity and runaway AI could provide a foundation for cooperation between the two AI superpowers.