The world risks “losing control” of frontier technology such as artificial intelligence if governments are too slow to regulate it, China’s premier warned attendees at “Summer Davos” on June 24.
Fears are growing of AI-driven disruption to labour markets and the security risks it poses.
“The speed of technological progress is unprecedented,” Premier Li Qiang said in a speech, noting that artificial intelligence has boosted “innovation efficiency.”
“However, we cannot ignore increasingly prominent risks of losing control of technology and ethical lapses,” he said.
“If governance in this area fails to keep pace, there could be serious consequences.”
Tech breakthroughs are touted as drivers of economic growth, but shadows include concern over job losses and geopolitics, said speakers at the annual conference put on in China by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Mirek Dusek, WEF’s managing director, told AFP that AI opens the door to new opportunities in education, healthcare and other areas.
“But the main imperative for decision-makers around the world is really: how do you make sure this counts in the real economy?” he said.
Adding to pressure on the international economic system is the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has stymied shipping from the oil-rich Middle East.
These headwinds have led the World Bank to reduce its global growth forecast for this year to its lowest level since the Covid pandemic.
The world economy is currently facing “a tepid environment”, Dusek said.
Li Qiang’s speech at the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions”, held this year in the northeastern city of Dalian, offered the chance to deliver a message to the influential group of tech and business leaders in attendance.
Beijing’s number-two leader characterized China’s economy as a “safe haven” in a world now struggling with “multiple shocks, including global energy shortages and severe disruptions to production and supply chains”.
The country has “injected a valuable dose of certainty into an increasingly uncertain world”, Li said.
China’s economy has nonetheless found it challenging in recent years to keep up with its breakneck pace of development in previous decades.
Despite a striking boom in exports and AI tech, sluggish household consumption and an entrenched property sector debt crisis have weighed on growth since the pandemic.
