While many U.S. companies are out to contain China’s progress in artificial intelligence through sanctions, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is choosing engagement.
After a whirlwind meeting with Chinese techies on Saturday, Altman noted that the importance of collaboration between American and Chinese researchers to mitigate the risks of AI systems, against a backdrop of escalating competition between Washington and Beijing to lead in the technology.
“China has some of the best AI talent in the world,” Altman said. “So I really hope Chinese AI researchers will make great contributions here.”
Still, OpenAI doesn’t make available its services, including ChatGPT, in China, which means that his firm is less threatened than many other U.S. companies..
Altman and Geoff Hinton, a so-called godfather of AI who quit Google to warn of the potential dangers of AI, were among more than a dozen American and British AI executives who spoke at the conference.
Chinese speakers at the conference came from top universities and companies, including U.S.-blacklisted telecom company Huawei Technologies, search giant Baidu and speech-recognition firm iFlytek, which was sanctioned in 2019 for allegedly aiding the Chinese government in the surveillance of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
By Karen Hao/WSJ
