AI Great Power Game: Many countries enter the competition and the United States and Europe are eyeing China

On March 13, in Strasbourg, France, MEPs voted to pass the EU's "Artificial Intelligence Act". Courtesy of Visual China

On April 16, Microsoft announced that it had reached an artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation agreement with G42, a UAE technology company, which attracted widespread attention from all walks of life. Foreign media reported that G42 is regarded by the outside world as the core of the UAE's AI strategy, and Microsoft's move intends to pull the UAE into the US camp in the field of AI.

The global wave of digitalization has promoted the rise of digital power, and the power attribute of AI in the economic, military and other fields is gradually emerging, becoming the main form of power in the digital age. At present, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Singapore have entered the game and plunged into the global competition of AI, and countries are engaged in fierce games and competitions around digital power, aiming to compete for the regulatory dominance and discourse power in the field of AI in the future.

Digital power game, the United States enters the Middle East

As the core driving force of the new round of industrial revolution, AI has long become the new focus of the scientific and technological game in various countries. Recently, the competition around the layout of AI has intensified. On April 16, Microsoft announced that it would invest $1.5 billion in G42, an AI company in the United Arab Emirates, and authorize G42 to use Microsoft's Azure cloud computing services, and Microsoft President Brad Smith will join the G42 board.

G42 has a wide range of businesses, from data centers to healthcare, and has developed a large Arabic AI model called Jais.

Regarding Microsoft's latest collaboration with the G42, the Financial Times called the move "the Biden administration is actively pushing US tech groups to look for AI deals and partnership opportunities in the UAE, with a view to cultivating an alliance that will outpace China in developing this revolutionary technology". Britain's Reuters news agency also reported that while nominally a private-sector deal, the main result was to firmly push the UAE into the US camp.

The New York Times reported that the deal was "largely orchestrated by the Biden administration" to repel the digital influence that China will gain in the Persian Gulf. According to Radio France Internationale, "this deal highlights a rising battle to determine which countries' systems and values will dominate the AI world of the future".

Alexis Serfati, head of geotechnology at Eurasia Group, a U.S.-based political risk consultancy, noted that the U.S.-Arabic deal signals the U.S. government's growing view of AI as a defense technology and a more practical role in its business affairs and investments.

Earlier, Arab media reported that the G42 was "forced to take sides" by withdrawing from China and reaching a new cooperation with the United States. In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian made it clear that China has always opposed the politicization, weaponization and pan-security of economic and trade issues, and opposes economic coercion that undermines the international economic and trade order and trade rules and threatens the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

With the rise of sovereign AI, countries have entered the game

In 2023, after tools such as ChatGPT became popular, the generative AI technology behind it has exploded. On February 14 this year, the American AI giant OpenAI launched the video generation model Sora, which set off a global upsurge of AI attention, and the concept of "sovereign AI" also emerged. This concept refers to the fact that a single country or region can meet its own development needs by establishing AI infrastructure and improving AI capabilities. In fact, many countries and industries have already laid out and developed their own exclusive basic models.

Japanese investment group SoftBank is seeking to develop a "world-class" Japanese-specific generative AI model, and plans to invest 150 billion yen (about $960 million) by the end of 2025 to strengthen its computing facilities, and is expected to complete the development of a model with 390 billion parameters in fiscal 2024 and a high-performance model with 1 trillion parameters in early 2025, as reported by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on April 22.

Currently, there is a lack of private companies in Japan that have the high-performance supercomputers needed to build large models. Some analysts believe that after the investment is completed, SoftBank's computing power may be among the highest in Japan, giving Japan a strong local enterprise in the field of generative AI.

Since the beginning of this year, the Singapore government has also made frequent moves in the field of AI. On February 16, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his FY2024 Budget statement that in order to support Singapore's national AI Strategy 2.0 and further promote AI activities, the government will invest more than S$1 billion (about 730 million U.S. dollars) in AI computing, talent and industry development over the next five years.

Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are also looking to shift their economic focus from oil to emerging technologies, all trying to establish themselves as global AI technology hubs.

In an interview, a relevant person from the domestic head large model company "Zhipu AI" pointed out that the large model is the key foundation of AI technology facilities, and the large model competition is the national science and technology strategic competition. AI models can empower all walks of life and promote industrial innovation and upgrading. In the future, with the widespread application of AI technology, new industries and new businesses may emerge one after another. The large model has given birth to unprecedented new spaces and new markets, and "its revolution lies not only in transforming the old world, but also in opening up a new world that has never been seen before."

The industry insider said that this year, "artificial intelligence +" was written into the "Government Work Report" by the mainland for the first time, and AI is an important engine for the development of new quality productivity, pointing out a new path for the development of the digital economy and the promotion of digital and real integration. In the future, China will also have full-stack independent innovation of large-scale model products.

AI is widely used, and all parties compete for dominance of the rules

The strong layout of the AI industry in many countries is closely related to its wide application in the military and civilian circles. "Innovations in AI continue to shape the future of humanity in almost every industry. An article on the American website Built in recently said that AI has become the main driving force for emerging technologies such as big data, robotics and the Internet of Things.

According to the 2023 Global AI Adoption Index released by IBM in the United States, about 42% of companies surveyed with more than 1,000 employees said they have actively deployed AI in their business, and 40% said they are currently exploring or experimenting with AI. Of the two, 59% of the companies surveyed said they had accelerated their adoption or investment in AI technology.

On the military front, the use of AI in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been widely concerned. Developers on both sides are working to build algorithms for use on the battlefield, including autonomous navigation, target identification and engagement, and intelligence processing. The New York Times has revealed that the U.S. Department of Defense is studying a variety of different operational options and development directions of the Russian military through AI systems.

AI competition includes competition for infrastructure hardware and software such as systems and algorithms, as well as competition for rules and global regulatory capabilities. Countries are actively promoting relevant legislation in order to compete for the dominance and discourse in the field of rules.

In March this year, the European Parliament passed the Artificial Intelligence Act with 523 votes in favor, 46 against and 49 abstentions. EU countries are expected to formally ratify the law in May, making it effective early next year and officially implemented in 2026.

Some analysts say that the EU's "Artificial Intelligence Act" is likely to become a "watershed" in the global AI governance and regulatory landscape, and its impact may go beyond the EU's borders, or even establish new standards for global AI governance.

Not only the European Union, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne recently revealed that Canada is closely following the development of the EU Act, because Canada is also developing its own AI legislation.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency also reported on April 20 that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to propose specific measures to promote the "Hiroshima AI process" when he attends the Council of Ministers of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on May 2 to discuss the formulation of international rules for generative AI.

In this regard, Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing University of Foreign Chinese and director of the Center for the Study of European Union and Regional Development, told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that the EU is now in the field of AI technology and market application, obviously under great competitive pressure from China and the United States, and it wants to protect its own innovation environment and small and medium-sized enterprises. The relevant laws will have an impact on AI governance for enterprises outside the region and other countries and regions, and will also increase competition in the field of global AI governance.

Beijing, April 25 --

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Zhao Anqi Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily