Advertisement
US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Henry Kissinger warns US-China decoupling would harm AI governance

  • ‘It is essential that we learn from each other,’ says former US secretary of state, speaking to audience at Bund Summit
  • He says Beijing and Washington should work together to regulate artificial intelligence, without ‘an attempt for one side to achieve domination’

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
74
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Washington, D.C., July 19, 2019. Photo: Getty Images
Jack Lau
Former US state secretary Henry Kissinger said a US-China decoupling would lower living standards in both countries and harm their ability to manage the emerging field of artificial intelligence.
Advertisement

“In this sense, it is essential that we learn from each other,” he said via video link at the Bund Summit, a finance forum in China’s financial hub of Shanghai. “It is essential that we should not proceed in the decoupled way.”

Kissinger said China’s deep integration into the global economy has strengthened the US-China relationship because the two have become dependent on each other for trade.

“In this sense, it is essential that we learn from each other,” former US state secretary Henry Kissinger said via video link at the Bund Summit, a finance forum in China’s financial hub of Shanghai. “It is essential that we should not proceed in the decoupled way.” Photo: Weibo
“In this sense, it is essential that we learn from each other,” former US state secretary Henry Kissinger said via video link at the Bund Summit, a finance forum in China’s financial hub of Shanghai. “It is essential that we should not proceed in the decoupled way.” Photo: Weibo
However, in recent years the US and EU have attempted to “de-risk” from China and other rivals by moving to confine the supply chains for crucial resources – such as rare earths – to a circle of more trusted nations.

Former US president Donald Trump started a trade war with China in 2018, citing a trade deficit and practices such as forced technological transfer to China. Trump’s successor, US President Joe Biden, has retained some of the measures.
Beijing and Washington have imposed trade restrictions on each other, including US curbs on chip exports to China and Beijing’s control of rare earths crucial to making semiconductors.

Kissinger said China and the US could cooperate on regulating the use of AI, without “an attempt for one side to achieve domination”.

Advertisement

The release of the ChatGPT chatbot last year kick-started a race to produce consumer products in China and elsewhere that can generate media based on prompts in plain language. AI-based products are also being applied in fields such as healthcare and finance.

Advertisement