BEIJING: The Permanent Mission of China, the Permanent Mission of Zambia, and the China Association for Science and Technology, on Monday co-hosted a meeting of the Group of Friends for International Cooperation on AI Capacity-Building at the UN headquarters in New York. Chinese delegates called for preventing artificial intelligence (AI) from becoming a game for a few wealthy countries, and said that people around the world should be able to equally share the digital dividends of AI, according to media reports on Wednesday.
Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the UN, said that we must uphold multilateralism and follow the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to advance the development of AI, while supporting the UN in playing a central role.
Through the joint efforts of the group, Fu called for promoting the establishment of a scientific advisory mechanism on AI and a global governance dialogue, building broad consensus and achieving practical outcomes. He stressed the importance of ensuring that all countries, especially those in the Global South, can effectively participate in global governance, and preventing AI from becoming a “game” reserved for a few wealthy countries or groups, China Media Group (CMG) reported.
As a longstanding contributor to global development and a provider of public goods, China has put forward and advanced a number of initiatives, such as the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for Good and for All, the Global AI Governance Action Plan, and the AI+ International Cooperation Initiative, said the ambassador, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
“We stand ready to work with all parties to turn those visions into reality, and to ensure that the benefits of AI development are shared more broadly and equitably across the world,” Fu said, according to Xinhua.
Chen Jiachang, vice minister of Science and Technology of China, noted in his speech that AI has become a key driving force behind the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. China is ready to work with countries around the world to deepen international cooperation, promote the healthy development of AI, boost global economic growth, and improve the well-being of people in all nations, CMG reported.
Chen said that China adheres to an open-source and open innovation path in AI and is accelerating the development of a globally inclusive technological innovation ecosystem. China has become the world’s largest contributor to AI patents, accounting for 60 percent of the global total. By embracing openness and open-source models, China’s AI open-source community, built by the industry, has gathered 170,000 multimodal open-source models and serves 20 million developers worldwide, according to CMG.
The meeting, a side event of the 11th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, was attended by more than 120 representatives from more than 50 countries and international organizations, Xinhua reported.
Ma Jihua, a veteran tech analyst, told the Global Times that China’s open-source large-language models feature low thresholds, rapid evolution, and open inclusiveness, enabling more people around the world to access the world’s most advanced AI at low cost. This naturally makes them widely welcomed, helps bridge the digital divide, and allows more developing countries and their people to benefit from technological dividends.
Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine, told the Global Times that AI will profoundly reshape society, create new modes of production and disruptive technologies, and greatly expand human thinking and physical capabilities. Developing AI is a priority for all countries. China’s open-source AI and its call for global collaboration reflect an open, inclusive vision of sharing technological progress with the world.
Bian pointed out that only in this way can the benefits of AI reach everyone in society. China stands ready to work with all countries to bridge the digital divide through open-source sharing and technological cooperation, ensuring that all nations, especially developing countries, can equally participate in and benefit from the AI revolution, so that technological progress truly serves the common development of all humanity.
According to data from OpenRouter, as calculated by the National Business Daily, the total global AI large-language model token usage reached 23.9 trillion tokens in the week of April 27 to May 3, up 8.6 percent from the previous week and marking the second consecutive week of growth. Among the listed AI models, weekly token usage of Chinese AI large-language models rose to 7.942 trillion tokens, an increase of 81.7 percent from the previous week, while that of US AI large-language models stood at 3.258 trillion tokens, down 34.6 percent week-on-week. After a two-week gap, China’s weekly AI model token usage once again surpassed that of the US. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
