Wuzhen Summit: China creates AI advisory body, with Alibaba Cloud founder as chief expert

China has created a new specialist committee on artificial intelligence (AI), as part of the country’s vision for the development and governance of the technology, amid simmering tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The AI Experts Committee will help spearhead efforts to promote the country’s perspective on how the fast-growing technology should be governed, according to a statement released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) at this year’s four-day World Internet Conference, also known as the Wuzhen Summit, which concludes this Friday.

Alibaba Cloud founder Wang Jian was named as chief expert of the committee. Alibaba Cloud leads AI research and development under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

CAC director Zhuang Rongwen on Wednesday said the committee aims to foster international cooperation on AI. The new body is made up of about 170 AI specialists, including British computer scientist Wendy Hall, Vienna University of Technology professor of computer science Schahram Dustdar and Chinese-American scientist Zhang Ya-qin, who serves as Dean of the Institute for AI Industry Research at Tsinghua University.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and other US businesses also have delegates in the committee, according to the CAC.

Establishing the AI Experts Committee underscores the urgency for China to take a more active role in shaping the technology’s global development – similar to its efforts in setting international standards for next-generation mobile networks based on 4G and 5G systems – even as the US government continues to impose stifling trade restrictions on the mainland.