China will send Wu Zhaohui, vice minister of science and technology, to attend a global summit on artificial intelligence this week in Britain, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Britain is bringing together representatives of artificial intelligence companies, political leaders and experts on November 1 and 2 to discuss what some see as the risks of this technology, with the aim of building an international consensus on its safe development.
Last week, China accepted Britain’s invitation to attend the summit, another sign of improving relations, after Britain’s top diplomat, James Cleverly, visited Beijing in August in the first trip by a British foreign minister in five years.
Britain is seeking to improve relations with China after relations deteriorated to their lowest levels in decades under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when London restricted some Chinese investments due to national security concerns and expressed concern about the suppression of freedoms in Hong Kong.
The number of visits by senior British officials and former officials to China has increased in recent months. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Beijing earlier this month and met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as Beijing looks to strengthen ties with the Labor Party ahead of a potential general election next year.
Wu will be accompanied by representatives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and companies and academic institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Alibaba and Tencent, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity because the information remains confidential.
Alibaba, Tencent and the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. China’s Ministry of Science and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.
Wu was appointed to his position at the Ministry of Science in December 2022. China is restructuring the ministry to allocate more resources to scientific achievements, with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency faster.
President Xi Jinping was initially invited, the other source said, adding that there was much debate over whether Britain should invite Chinese officials. “But in the end there was a feeling that not inviting China would be counterproductive,” the source said. They also did not want to reveal their names because the information was confidential.
Like many other countries around the world, China has become caught up in a global craze around generative AI following the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year.
China now has at least 130 major language models launched by companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, accounting for 40% of the global total and trailing slightly behind the US’s 50% share, according to brokerage CLSA. (Reporting by Lori Chen in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
