According to two people familiar with the situation, China will send Wu Zhaohui, a vice minister of science and technology, to a worldwide conference on artificial intelligence that is taking place this week in Britain.
In an effort to foster worldwide agreement on the technology’s safe growth, Britain is hosting a gathering on November 1–2 that will include representatives of AI businesses, government figures, and specialists.
In yet another indication of warming ties, China this week accepted Britain’s offer to the summit. In August, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly made his first visit to Beijing as foreign secretary in five years.
Following a low point in decades under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when London banned certain Chinese investment because of concerns about national security and voiced alarm about a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, Britain is attempting to rebuild relationships with China.
Senior British public staff and former officials have been visiting China more often in recent months. As Beijing looks to strengthen ties with the Labour Party ahead of a general election that is anticipated to take place next year, former prime minister Tony Blair visited Beijing earlier this month and spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Sources that want to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the material shared include the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Alibaba (9988.HK), Tencent (0700.HK), and representatives from the Chinese foreign ministry. These groups of people ought to be with Wu.
Requests for responses from Alibaba, Tencent, and the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office were not immediately answered. Requests for comments sent by fax were not immediately answered by China’s foreign and scientific ministries or the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In December 2022, Wu was given his position at the scientific ministry. China is reorganizing the ministry in an effort to accelerate its transition to self-sufficiency by allocating more funds for scientific advancements.
The other source stated that there had been much debate over whether or not Britain should invite any Chinese officials, but that President Xi Jinping had been invited at first. “But eventually the view was taken that not inviting China would be counter-productive,” according to a source. They also declined to give their names because the details were private.
China, like many other nations, has been engulfed in the worldwide generative AI frenzy since OpenAI’s ChatGPT gained prominence in the previous year.
According to stockbroker CLSA, China already has at least 130 significant language models that companies like Tencent and Alibaba have introduced, accounting for 40% of the global total and trailing only the United States’ 50% stake.
Comment Template