China President Xi Jinping (pictured) set out his vision for the country to assume a leadership role in AI, calling for increased international cooperation and promotion of open-source technology while taking aim at the US over attempts to govern the sector.

Xi made the comments in a speech at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, where it was announced China, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia are among 30 countries to have joined the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation.

Chinese state media describe the new group as an intergovernmental organisation headquartered in Shanghai to promote global AI governance.

Of the new group, Xi said AI should not be a “solo performance by one country, but rather a symphony of global cooperation”.

He said the initiative is a response to the call of the Global South to unite the international community in promoting development and governance of AI, “and it will become a major milestone in the history of artificial intelligence development”.

To further support this, Xi said China will provide 5,000 training opportunities in AI-related fields for developing countries, in addition to establishing AI application cooperation centres.  

In his speech, Xi noted that as AI continues to develop at “staggering speed”, there was a greater need for positive direction.

“We must more precisely grasp the scale of oversight and governance, and more promptly refine measures to forestall loss of control.”

Overstretch
While not naming the US directly, Xi said countries should oppose “overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI, or placing one country’s security over that of others”.

The US has notably placed several restrictions on China, impacting companies in the country from accessing high-end technology.

XI continued to state he was committed to promoting cooperation, bridging the digital divide, promoting sustainable development and avoiding “creating new historical injustices in the field of artificial intelligence”.

Finally, he called on the countries to “seize this rare historical opportunity, encourage open source and open collaboration”, in turn upgrading traditional industries and ensure AI can “empower all sectors”.

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The European Commission (EC) ordered Google to ensure rival AI platforms can compete better with the company’s own services on Android and laid out data sharing requirements for its search engine.

The EC stated the measures fall under its Digital Markets Act and are the result of a six-month probe against the company to ensure compliance with the legislation.

In the field of AI, the EC noted competing AI assistants currently have only restricted access to key functions on the current Android OS. This means systems including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude “are not competing on an equal footing” with Google’s own services such as Gemini which have full access.

As a result, third party AI assistants are 60% less attractive to EU users who have an Android device, the EC stated.

The EC stated the measure means users would be able to activate their preferred AI assistant through voice commands.

Third-party users would also be able to employ AI assistants to perform actions in apps on their behalf.

The EC also included safeguards to ensure privacy, device integrity and security.

In total, it will open 11 features on Android to rival AI companies.

Google is also required to share data it collects from its search services with rivals including OpenAI, allowing “for the development and optimisation of third-party search engines”.

The EC stated the move would create a more level playing field with Google Search, although it will be allowed to assess whether rivals pose cybersecurity and data protection risks before opening data to them. The EC stated the measure provides “a fair formula to calculate the price of the shared data”.

Google is required to begin implementing the search measures by January 2027 and the changes to Android from July 2027.

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