SHANGHAI—Chinese leader Xi Jinping endorsed the building of open-source artificial-intelligence models, touting an approach that has helped the country catch up with the U.S. in global influence.
Event Context
“We should oppose overstretching the concept of national security in the field of AI or placing one country’s security over that of others,” Xi said, without naming the U.S.
Hours before Xi’s speech, Beijing-based Moonshot AI offered the latest breakthrough from China, an open-weight model called Kimi K3 that has surprised many in Silicon Valley with its advanced capabilities.
The U.S. and China have taken different approaches in the AI models that underlie chatbots such as Claude and ChatGPT. In Silicon Valley, OpenAI, Anthropic and other technology giants are building largely proprietary models using Nvidia’s cutting-edge semiconductors.
Player Focus
“AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of global collaboration,” Xi said in another implied swipe at the U.S.
He called for cooperation within the framework of the U.N. to ensure that AI is “secure and controllable.” And he highlighted the potential dangers of autonomous systems making life-or-death decisions, calling for measures to “ensure that AI is always under human control.”
Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwan-born AI entrepreneur and venture capitalist who formerly led Microsoft’s and Google’s operations in China, said Xi’s nods toward openness would appeal to a world wary of the U.S. further entrenching its global dominance.
Lee, speaking at the Shanghai conference, said he was skeptical of what he described as Silicon Valley’s “winner-take-all” approach to attaining artificial general intelligence—autonomous systems that can surpass human capabilities. “What is the grand prize of AGI? And why use it to create closed systems?” Lee said.
Match Outlook
His speech comes as the U.S. and China are jockeying for leadership of global AI, with the U.S. generally acknowledged on both sides to hold a small lead. Each country hopes that its AI models will become standard around the globe. And each hopes to gain a national security advantage with new technology such as Anthropic’s Mythos model, which can automatically detect cybersecurity flaws.
The Trump administration recently intervened to temporarily block access to Mythos, citing national security concerns.
“Xi’s message is clear: China is not going to follow anyone on both AI technology and standards,” said George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group who is attending the conference.
Graham Webster, a research scholar at Stanford University, said China’s new AI governance body was more rhetorical than substantive so far.
Governing AI risks globally “is by definition going to need the U.S. and China both involved,” said Webster, who focuses on Chinese tech policy. Otherwise, he said, “it can’t be a comprehensive global solution.”
Write to Jonathan Cheng at Jonathan.Cheng@wsj.com and Katrina Northrop at katrina.northrop@wsj.com
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Chinese companies such as DeepSeek, Moonshot and Zhipu AI have been playing catch-up and have published many open-source models, which people are generally free to use and adapt.
Chinese AI executives have expressed concern that they will struggle to close the gap with the U.S. because Washington restricts China’s access to the world’s best chips and chip-making equipment.
Xi’s speech was attended by nine Nobel Prize and Turing Award laureates as well as the United Nations secretary-general António Guterres. Also present were dignitaries from 29 countries that a day earlier had signed up to create a new China-led body to promote global AI cooperation.
Xi depicted China as a champion of less-developed nations that fear being left behind as the Trump administration seeks to solidify U.S. dominance in AI. The new body will “answer the call of the Global South,” he said.
One aspect of the U.S.-China AI battle involves control over still-nascent global AI standards. Xi said China would do more to help developing countries with AI training and seminars, and would set up AI-focused bodies within the multilateral groupings that China is a member of, including the Brics collection of large emerging economies and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization of Central Asian nations.
