China-US Summit Raises Issues Around AI and How Cooperation Can Shape Its Development

The big question in AI technology is whether the US and China can converge on goals for the development of AI and how convergence could work to the benefit of all.

With both countries investing heavily in AI and this week's Washington summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, the question weighs heavily on the path forward.

While China's AI strategy may be more calibrated, the US remains ahead in terms of capital invested. But while the American approach may be "freer," its individualistic tendency leaves many behind.

Amid a global debate about the safety of superintelligence, the US needs to take stock of where it is heading. Does democracy have a place in technology development or do venture capital dollars rule the roost? The US used to have an Office of Technology Assessment, a congressional body which evaluated risks and benefits of potential technologies to advise policy decisions. Such models remain in place in Europe, for example with the Responsible Research and Innovation framework. Nowadays, however, the US government seems to just trust the word and self-regulation of tech leaders.

But it's also important to remember there are Americans who are concerned about what AI is doing. Timnit Gebru, Margaret Mitchell, Joy Buolamwini, Kate Crawford and many others have raised the popular consciousness about AI's negative social impacts. Tech ethics centers have popped at universities across the country. Open letters from many different industries, and even within the AI community, have emphasized the problems of algorithms usurping human jobs or even jumping beyond human control.

Some of the prevailing worry is tied to "existential risk" anxiety, where AI is highlighted as a potential cause of human extinction. Some of those concerns are overblown or seriously alarmist, but not all. It is rather unlikely that AI, as it currently sits, will suddenly develop a deep hatred of humanity and seek our extermination. This risk of malevolent robots rising up against us is more a product of what Isaac Asimov called the "Frankenstein complex."

However, trusting AI in situations that do not warrant this trust, such as international relations, roadmaps to climate change policy or control of domestic infrastructure, could lead to serious repercussions.

But Americans are worried about other problems, too: higher costs of living, increasing disasters related to global warming, increased political polarization and the lack of a comprehensive social safety net. Americans are asking how AI can improve their lives and work. Many local communities are uniting to oppose construction of energy-hungry AI data centers in their backyards, fearing a sharp increase in electricity bills. Polls suggest a majority negative attitude toward prioritizing the technology just now.

On the other hand, China seems to be far more homogenous in public support for AI. Even though youth unemployment is on the rise, the central integration of AI into various state programs has had a streamlining effect. But one wonders whether there are downstream effects, such as those studied by Virginia Eubanks and Cathy O'Neil, who found that automation had significant harmful impacts on underrepresented groups in the US.

What, for example, is the effect on taxi drivers in cities like Wuhan where automated taxis have taken over? While internet access in China is now up to 97 percent of the county, a highly laudable accomplishment, that doesn't mean that older residents and those living in more remote areas have the digital ability to benefit from the technology.

Will AI ease or exacerbate social challenges that have dropped the nation's rate? To quote a proverb: "Those whose feet are closest feel the fire." We should be asking who is "closest" to the negative impacts of AI in China, where the government is active in every step of its development, from mining of rare earth elements in Inner Mongolia and building high-end components in Shenzhen to construction of massive data centers across the country.

Here is my dream for the US-China summit this week. We must see our two countries not as enemies but as brothers. The Cold War taught us that super-power conflict is a dead end, and the reality of climate change reminds us we share this world together. Can the US and China appreciate each as companions in global progress?

The approaches of each country to solving problems are different. China tends to look at the broad picture of a problem; America tends to focus on individual issues, often promoted by special interest groups.

Since the time of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China has recognized its development is tied to resolving "contradictions in principles." In the current era, perhaps the contradiction can be seen in the Promethean development of AI – simply to be the most powerful purveyor in the world or to use the technology for human good? If the latter is to be our aim, it will require shared moral imagination, a shared dream of a future the US and China can build together.

(The author is associate director of the Center for Applied Ethics at Hong Kong Baptist University.)