A former Chinese official is worried that the safety of AI technologies might be overlooked due to rising tensions between the US and China.
Fu Ying, who used to be China’s vice minister of foreign affairs, shared her thoughts at a panel during the Paris AI Action Summit. She pointed out that while AI research is advancing quickly, the relationship between the two countries is deteriorating, making cooperation harder for risk management.
“When development speeds up, risks increase,” she stated. Fu Ying, also known for her role as China’s ambassador to the UK, now teaches at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Her comments come shortly after a Chinese AI company, DeepSeek, made waves in the industry by releasing an impressive and affordable AI model named DeepSeek-R1, challenging US firms.
Fu Ying mentioned, “China is moving faster than the West, but it faces many challenges.” She suggested that adopting an open-source approach to AI development could help in detecting and solving potential issues effectively, as transparency is crucial for building trust.
In contrast, Professor Yoshua Bengio, a leading figure in modern AI, raised concerns about open-source AI, saying it could be misused by criminals. However, he acknowledged that identifying safety issues is often simpler with open-source tools compared to closed systems like ChatGPT.
The Paris AI Action Summit gathers leaders, tech executives, and scholars from over 80 countries to discuss AI’s effect on society and the environment. AI regulation is a key discussion topic at the summit, co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Emmanuel Macron. Notable figures like OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai are participating as well.
