Reuters-Exclusive China took part in leaders AI meeting even though UK did not acknowledge
November 3, 2023 3 min 543 words
这篇报道披露了中国参与了英国的AI安全峰会，尽管英国未将中国列为“志同道合”的与会国家，也没有在正式的握手仪式或合影中展现中国的存在。这一情况引发了疑问，因为中国参与了关于“前沿”人工智能安全的峰会的首日，而英国拒绝透露为何北京未参加第二天的高级会议。媒体对此提出多种猜测，包括英国希望呈现统一立场，而中国可能不支持周四的联合协议。 英国政府代表称，英国举办的AI安全峰会包括“来自世界各国政府的志同道合的高级代表”，其中包括美国副总统和欧盟委员会主席。然而，一些英国议员批评中国参与首届AI峰会，质疑是否应该将被西方视为技术竞争对手和军事威胁的北京纳入关于敏感技术的会议。总的来看，这一报道反映了国际间在AI领域的竞争和合作关系，以及各国政府在处理这一复杂议题上的立场。 在这个新兴领域，国际社会需要就AI的发展和安全问题进行开放、坦诚的对话，同时也需要平衡国家利益和全球合作。这一事件提醒我们，AI已成为国际政治和安全议程的一部分，需要更多的协调和合作来应对潜在的挑战。
China said it attended a top-level ministerial meeting at the UK AI Safety Summit on Thursday, despite not being listed by Britain among the "like-minded" participants and not featuring in official handshakes or the family photograph.
China's absence sparked questions because it participated in the first day of the two-day summit on the safety of "frontier" artificial intelligence, and Britain declined to say why Beijing was not among those joining the second day's senior meeting.
China's delegate to the meeting, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Wu Zhaohui, was present on Thursday, his ministry said on Friday. China's participation in the second-day ministerial meeting has not been previously reported.
"Please contact the British sponsoring government department for the specific arrangements and outcomes of the meeting," the Chinese ministry said when asked why Wu had not featured in the public events on Thursday.
In one possible reason for not advertising the Chinese presence, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that "there are some sessions where we have like-minded countries working together, so it might not be appropriate for China to join".
Among other reasons speculated was that Britain wanted to present a united front and China did not back Thursday's joint agreement.
The Chinese technology ministry declined to say why China did not agree to the proposal, which was about AI model testing.
Diplomatic protocol may have played a part too because Wu was junior to other participants on the second day of the conference in Bletchley Park, southern England.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chaired Thursday's meeting that comprised "a small group of like-minded senior representatives from governments around the world", Britain said, including the U.S. vice president and the EC president.
Some British lawmakers had criticised China's participation in the inaugural AI summit. They questioned whether Beijing, which the West sees as a technological rival and military threat, should be included in meetings about sensitive technology.
Wu attended the first day of the summit on Wednesday when China, the United States, European Union and 26 other countries agreed to share a common approach to identifying AI risks and ways to mitigate them, called the Bletchley Declaration.
He did not feature in any public events on the second day, leading one journalist to ask Sunak at a news conference why China had been excluded from the final day.
Sunak did not address the question directly, but said he achieved the outcome he wanted, with China engaged in the process.
A British government spokesperson declined to comment on the participation of individual countries at the summit.
Sunak told reporters: "Some said we shouldn't even invite China, others said we would never get an agreement with them. Both were wrong."