Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang stressed the importance of strengthened governance of artificial intelligence (AI), warning that a lack of regulation in this rapidly expanding sector could lead to a devastating “loss of control”.
He spoke before an audience of policymakers, innovators and experts in Dalian (northeast China), at the “Summer Davos,” the summer edition of the annual meeting held in Switzerland by the World Economic Forum.
“The pace of technological progress is unprecedentedly rapid” and “artificial intelligence, in particular, has substantially increased the efficiency of innovation,” Li Qiang said in his speech.
“However, we cannot close our eyes to the risks of loss of control of technologies and ethical drift, increasingly evident in the current evolution. If the necessary governance does not keep pace, the consequences could be severe,” he emphasized.
Concerns are growing about the disruptions AI is causing to employment, the risks that it escapes human control, the discriminatory biases it can generate, not to mention cyberattacks and its potential deployment in armed conflicts.
China had called on the United States last month to work with it to promote governance in artificial intelligence and had announced the creation of an intergovernmental dialogue on this topic, a source of intense bilateral rivalry.
Mirek Dusek, the managing director of the World Economic Forum, told AFP on Tuesday that AI offers “an immense opportunity to make a leap forward” in several areas such as access to education or health.
“We have benefited in recent times from numerous technological advances. But the major imperative for decision-makers worldwide is to know how to translate this concretely into the real economy,” he stressed.
