GENEVA (AP) — Top U.S. and Chinese envoys met in closed-door talks in Geneva on Tuesday to lay out their national approaches to the promises and perils of emerging artificial intelligence technology.
The talks, which the Presidents Joe Biden It is Xi Jinping agreed to launch in 2023, are intended open bilateral dialogue between the world’s two largest economies—and increasingly geopolitical rivals—on a rapidly evolving technology that already has consequences for commerce, lifestyles, culture, politics, national security and defense, and more.
US technology experts say the meeting – led on the American side by senior White House and State Department officials – could offer a glimpse into Beijing’s thinking on AI amid a generally low-key Chinese approach to the technology.
Co-founder Jason Glassberg of Casaba Security in Redmond, Washington, an expert in new and emerging threats posed by AI, framed the meeting as a get-to-know-you meetup that will likely produce few concrete results but will get both sides talking.
“What is most important at this moment is that both sides realize that each has a lot to lose if AI is weaponized or abused,” Glassberg said in an email. “All parties involved are equally at risk. Right now, one of the biggest areas of risk is deepfakes, especially for use in disinformation campaigns.”
“This is as big a risk for the PRC as it is for the US government,” he added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
It was not immediately clear why the meeting was held in Geneva, even though the internationally-minded Swiss city styles itself as a center of diplomacy and the United Nations and international institutions.
The Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union – a UN agency currently headed by American Doreen Bodgan-Martin and previously headed by China’s Houlin Zhao – is expected to host its annual “AI for Good” conference in the city later this month .
The meeting is the first within the framework of an intergovernmental dialogue on AI agreed during a multifaceted meeting between Xi and Biden in San Francisco six months ago.
The US government has sought to establish some barriers around the technology, while promoting its growth, looking for a possible benefit to economic production and employment.
Western experts have suggested that China’s government, meanwhile, has in part maintained control over AI applications because of its actual or potential applications for military and surveillance activities under Communist Party rule.
US officials have suggested they would establish ways to mitigate potential risks from the technology, creating voluntary commitments with leading companies in the sector and requiring safety testing of AI products.
