Artificial intelligence is more than a technological upgrade. It is reshaping productivity, social relations and civilization itself. How countries, particularly major AI powers, respond to this transformation will profoundly influence its future.

Yet some countries remain trapped in zero-sum thinking and bloc confrontation, treating AI as a tool of great-power competition. Through technology restrictions, industrial decoupling and exclusive partnerships, they seek to preserve technological dominance and monopolize the benefits of innovation. This outdated mindset is becoming a major obstacle to technological progress and global AI governance.

Cooperation is key to innovation

History shows that openness and international cooperation have long driven scientific progress. The United States itself benefited from global talent flows and cross-border research collaboration after World War II.

China and the US also enjoyed productive periods of scientific exchange. From early academic exchanges in the 1970s to joint research during the rise of deep learning, scholars and companies from both countries contributed to AI development. This history demonstrates that sharing knowledge can accelerate innovation and benefit both sides.

But cooperation has increasingly given way to strategic rivalry. Washington has tightened restrictions on advanced chips, computing power and investment, framing technological competition as a national security issue. Such measures risk narrowing the space for long-term cooperation and undermining innovation, including within the United States itself.

AI poses challenges no country can tackle alone

The AI revolution is still in its early stages, and its future direction remains uncertain. AI agents are becoming increasingly capable of handling complex tasks, while advances in world models are pushing the technology toward a deeper understanding of the physical world.

AI's evolution is also difficult to predict or control. Meanwhile, risks ranging from deepfakes and AI-enabled attacks to errors in autonomous systems can cross borders. AI security is therefore not simply a national technological or industrial concern, but a systemic challenge facing all humanity.

At the opening of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping raised fundamental questions about how humanity should coexist with increasingly capable machines, safeguard security, keep governance abreast of technological change and ensure that AI's benefits are widely shared.

These questions underscore the need for collective responses. Technological barriers may slow the spread of innovation, but they cannot stop AI's global development. Unilateral restrictions and fragmented rules may instead create gaps in governance and increase systemic risks.

China and the US have a shared responsibility

As two of the world's most influential AI powers, China and the United States have a particular responsibility to shape the future of the technology. Competition is a natural part of innovation, but turning it into an ideological struggle risks stifling global progress and weakening the ability to address shared risks.

The greater the uncertainty surrounding AI, the more important it is for major powers to exercise strategic restraint, uphold safeguards and expand opportunities for cooperation.

The intelligent age requires a new strategic mindset—one that moves beyond Cold War-era confrontation. Countries need to develop shared understandings and governance approaches suited to the technology, setting rules through dialogue, strengthening oversight through openness and learning to coexist amid competition.

AI should be a source of shared progress and human flourishing, not another instrument of division.

(Li Yan is director at the Institute of Science and Technology and Cybersecurity Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. CGTN reporter Li Shuang also contributed to the article.)