Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior government officials agreed during a meeting on the need to strengthen regulation of the artificial intelligence sector, state media reported Wednesday.
The agreement was reached during a summit of the Chinese Communist Party to “improve monitoring of network data and artificial intelligence,” according to the same sources.
“We should prepare for the worst-case scenarios and be ready to resist strong winds, rough waters and even dangerous storms,” the officials said after the meeting, according to the Xinhua news agency.
“The complexity and seriousness of the national security issues facing our country have greatly increased,” said President Xi Jinping.
The Chinese authorities had announced in April that they would impose a “security check” on tools developed in China and based on artificial intelligence such as “GBT Chat”.
It introduced a bill aimed at ensuring the “healthy development and exemplary application of generative AI technology”.
The Cyberspace Administration of China has made the draft regulations available for public comment, and it is likely to be adopted.
The text was revealed as several Chinese technology companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, JD.com and BitDance (the parent company of TikTok) have announced in recent weeks that they are working on prototypes of their own chatbot. Hoping to repeat the success of the American “Chat GBT”.
China has announced ambitious plans to become a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, and consulting firm McKinsey estimates that by then the sector could contribute nearly $600 billion to GDP each year.
