Xi pitches China-led open-source AI ecosystem at Brics summit amid US rivalry

CHINESE President Xi Jinping has sought to turn the annual Brics summit into another platform for championing Beijing’s vision for artificial intelligence, as it vies for global influence over the technology with the US.

China will lead the creation of what Xi called a Brics “community” for open-source AI. Speaking on Sunday (Sep 13) in New Delhi, he said the initiative will “support the cooperation in developing and applying large language models,” as well as holding AI seminars and training courses for members of the club of major emerging economies. 

On Saturday, Xi welcomed Brics nations to join a new group of nearly 30 countries set up by Beijing and called the World AI Cooperation Organization. Brics must “strengthen cooperation in the field of AI, encourage open source, openness, collaboration and sharing,” he said. 

Xi is pushing for greater sway as global AI governance becomes a new battleground for the world’s leading powers. Beijing is looking to build an open-source AI ecosystem that offers its citizens and global customers a cheaper alternative to US technology, while American developers including OpenAI and Anthropic prefer closed models. 

For now, it was not immediately clear if China’s vision is winning favour from other Brics members such as the United Arab Emirates and India. 

A joint declaration issued by the group on Saturday did not explicitly address Xi’s pitch. Instead, it called for “international cooperation in enhancing accessibility of AI resources while ensuring its safety, security, inclusiveness and reliability.”

Beijing will likely push for AI governance again when it hosts the Brics Summit in 2027. State media has suggested that next year’s focus will be on topics including AI, digital economy and green development. 

China’s open-source approach was also invoked by State Security Minister Chen Yixin as a way to ensure AI security and equity. 

Certain countries are using blacklists, closed-source ecosystems, and tech curbs to “sever global AI industrial chains and supply chains, exacerbating the imbalanced development of the global AI industry,” Chen wrote in a journal article made public on Saturday. 

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Still, Beijing also maintains there is a limit to openness. 

Xi emphasised the need to balance development and security at his debut appearance at China’s top AI summit in July. A social media account frequently used to signal official policy thinking has said China should restrict access to the most powerful features of artificial intelligence models. BLOOMBERG