China's premier tells Davos that innovation shouldn't be used to restrict other nations

cnbc.com:

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said that tech innovations should not be used as a way to restrict or contain other countries.

«To keep the competition healthy and bring out the greatest vitality, the only way is to enhance cooperation in innovation,» Li said via an official English translation of his Mandarin-language remarks made on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

«Scientific and technological fruits should benefit humanity as a whole, instead of becoming a means to restrict or contain the development of other countries,» Li added, calling for «more open measures.»

Li did not specifically name any countries in his remarks. Beijing has repeatedly asked Washington to remove restrictions on Chinese companies that prevent them from buying advanced technology from U.S. firms.

U.S. measures in the last two years have explicitly focused on cutting China off from high-end semiconductors used for artificial intelligence, out of concern that the tech is fueling the military capabilities of Beijing.

Following his speech, Li spoke about the risks and opportunities of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, in a brief question-and-answer session with World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab.

«To put plainly, we human beings must control the machines instead of having the machines control us,» Li said, calling for a universal «red line in AI development» without specifying details.

He added that AI shouldn't just benefit a small group of people, and that the interests of developing countries should be prioritized.

U.S.-based OpenAI's ChatGPT surged in popularity just over a year ago, but isn't officially available in China. Many similar chatbots from Chinese companies, such as Baidu and Alibaba, launched to the public