China's efforts in global technological collaboration

Editor's note: Keke Gai is a professor at the School of Cyberspace and Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology; and Jing Yu is an associate professor at the Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The article reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE) is taking place in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, 2023, themed "New Era, Shared Future". Over 3400 enterprises from more than 120 countries and regions have attended the expo.  

In the event, the exhibition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) products and services has attracted a great deal of attention. Many cutting-edge AI technologies, from large language models to AI-generated content, and from AI safety to metaverse, show the flourishing high-quality development of digitalization.

In 2022, China released a guideline mainly focusing on building data infrastructure to better play the role of data elements, which encourages the development and utilization of a large amount of data to facilitate the development of digital economy. 

This policy guides four key areas, including data property rights protection, data element circulation and trading, data element income distribution, and data element governance.

The document has ushered in a new era of high-quality development for Chinese AI tech innovation and industry upgrading by fully leveraging the value of data.

To meet this goal, many Chinese scientists devote their efforts and intelligence to AI research. 

A Stanford University report showed that in 2021, China ranked first place for AI patent applications, more than half the world's filings, and the nation continued to lead the world in the number of AI journals, conference papers and related publications as well.

Chinese scholars and experts are open to international collaboration and making great contributions to the development of AI theory, technologies, and applications.

"Besides the booming application of new AI technologies, especially for Artificial Intelligence Generated Content, we also seek for a balance between AI development and safety. AI tech brings new challenges to the safety of models, reliability, controllability, and fairness. For example, AI-generated content may invade the privacy of personal data. How to protect the intelligence property of the generated content is another essential issue to deal with," said Xiaosheng Tan, the Founder & CEO of Beijing Genius Cyber Tech Co., Ltd. "We need to pay attention to responsible AI to avoid manipulating public cognition and disseminating false information."

At this year's CIIE, we also find Chinese entrepreneurs' spirits in innovations. Some exhibited products present immersive experiences of the metaverse for healthcare and recognition tasks. 

Chinese entrepreneurs have shared new AI-centric application scenarios and brought new AI-centric solutions to upgrade the digital market. 

"We are always trying to utilize new technologies, blockchain, AI, IoT (Internet of Things), cloud computing, and big data to reshape the industry." said Linhua Dong, CEO of Beijing Muguo Tech Co., Ltd., "Even though the process is challenging, we have established a blockchain-based AI platform for forming trustworthy trading, which supports more efficient and secure business either domestically or globally."

Behind the prosperous AI industry, China has also continued to support the cultivation of sci-tech talents. 

At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the top leader of the country emphasized that the country will speed up efforts to build a contingent of personnel with expertise of strategic importance and cultivate greater numbers of highly skilled individuals across a wide variety of fields and industries, and ranging from science and engineering to craftsmen.

It has pointed out an explicit direction for constructing sufficient talent pools. 

A document released in 2023, has also guided young talents to serve high-quality development, encouraging them to carry out original innovation, achieve breakthroughs, and see research outcomes developed into practical applications.

We believe that there is no doubt China urges to promote a shared future via a wide global technological collaboration to achieve broad co-prosperity.

Under the leadership of the Chinese government, scientists, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and other pioneers in China will surely share more experiences in novel research and development with the world for global high-quality development.

In summary, the coordinated development of AI technologies, industries, and talents is becoming a driving force for not only the digital economy but also real economy in China. In the future, a safe development of AI will continuously contribute to the high-quality development of the Chinese economy as well as healthy global collaboration.