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A computer generated image of the letters AI.
The new AI threats from China
A flurry of impressive new artificial intelligence models is coming online in China. DeepSeek grabbed the world’s attention in January with its powerful and allegedly low-cost R1 model, then Alibaba followed it up with a new model called Qwen 2.5-Max, before Tencent released the model Hunyuan Turbo S that it claimed was faster than DeepSeek.
But there’s even more competition now. On Saturday, Baidu announced two new versions of its AI model, Ernie, that are adept at more complex “reasoning” tasks, a major point of emphasis right now for the top American AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. And a Chinese newcomer called Manus recently launched an AI “agent” that can complete multi-step tasks for users — say, order and pay for a pizza — that’s receiving lots of hype though it’s currently invite-only.
The dam has burst in the Chinese tech industry and now every player is racing to release software that can beat DeepSeek but can also compete with the top AI countries in the world.
In this photo illustration, the People's Republic of China flag is displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence chip and symbol in the background.
China spends big on AI
Much of China’s AI industry is reliant on low-grade chips from US chipmaker Nvidia, which is barred from selling its top models because of US export controls. (For more on the US-China chip race, check out GZERO AI’s interview with Trump export control chief Nazak Nikakhtar from last week’s edition.)
AI policy formation must include voices from the global South
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Fellow, Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and former European Parliamentarian, co-hosts GZERO AI, our new weekly video series intended to help you keep up and make sense of the latest news on the AI revolution. In this episode, she explains the need to incorporate diverse and inclusive perspectives in formulating policies and regulations for artificial intelligence. Narrowing the focus primarily to the three major policy blocs—China, the US, and Europe—would overlook crucial opportunities to address risks and concerns unique to the global South.
This is GZERO AI from Stanford's campus, where we just hosted a two-day conference on AI policy around the world. And when I say around the world, I mean truly around the world, including many voices from the Global South, from multilateral organizations like the OECD and the UN, and from the big leading AI policy blocs like the EU, the UK, the US and Japan that all have AI offices for oversight.
But what I really want to focus on is the role of people in the Global South, and how they're underrepresented in discussions about both what AI means in their local context and how they participate in debates around policy, if they do at all. Because right now, our focus is way too much on the three big policy blocks, China, the US and Europe.
Also because of course, a lot of industry is here around the corner in Silicon Valley. But I've learned so much from listening to people who focus on the African continent, where there are no less than 2000 languages. And, many questions about what AI will mean for those languages, for access for people beyond just the exploitative and attractive model, based on which large language models are trained with cheap labor from people in these developing countries, but also about how harms can be so different.
For example, the disinformation tends to spread with WhatsApp rather than social media platforms and that voice, through generative AI. So synthetic voice is one of the most effective ways to spread disinformation. Something that's not as prominently recognized here, where there's so much focus on text content and deepfakes videos, but not so much on audio. And then, of course, we talked about elections because there are a record number of people voting this year and disinformation around elections, tends to pick up.
And AI is really a wild card in that. So I take away that we just need to have many more conversations, not so much, about AI in the Global South and tech policy there, but listening to people who are living in those communities, researching the impact of AI in the Global South, or who are pushing for fair treatment when their governments are using the latest technologies for repression, for example.
So lots of fruitful thought. And, I was very grateful that people made it all the way over here to share their perspectives with us.
China to require AI licenses
China is reportedly mulling a proposal that would require all companies working with generative AI to apply for licenses directly from directly the state. The move is meant to ensure that even as China makes a bid to be an AI superpower, the technology remains “reliable and controllable,” in the words of the country’s top internet regulator.
This highlights the particular AI regulation challenges that China faces, as an authoritarian one-party state that is seeking to become a global leader in the industry: The ruling Communist Party wants to maximize AI innovation but minimize any challenges to its strict control of online speech and content.
Compare that with the US — China’s main competitor in the AI race — which has a different set of concerns. Washington wants to limit harm to consumers and society, but without stifling innovation at the Silicon Valley firms that are on the front lines of the competition with Beijing.
Europe, meanwhile, lacking tech giants of its own, is moving ahead with some of the strictest regulations on AI to head off the negative consequences of algorithmic bias, misinformation, or copyright infringements.
Upshot: The race to regulate AI is at least as consequential as the race to develop the technology itself.A police officer stands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
China wants ChatCCP, not ChatGPT
China is not immune to fears about the power of artificial intelligence that the launch of ChatGPT sparked around the world. The Chinese Communist Party, in turn, is drafting regulations to enforce AI censorship rules to ensure chatbots don’t undermine its power.
ChatGPT is unavailable in China, so entrepreneurs and investors are racing to develop domestic AI alternatives. But those that have been created so far have failed to live up to the party’s patriotic standards.
Unlike most governments, the CCP is not waiting to see the consequences of AI before drawing stringent red lines. Chatbots will be forbidden from speaking critically of Chinese leaders or against the Party’s version of history and must respect intellectual property. Companies should expect to be held responsible if they fail to follow the proposed regulations, as the government is requiring that chatbot algorithms and their software engineers be registered with the government. While the regulations are not finalized, AI engineers in China are already striving to align their work with them.
But can the rules be obeyed? It may require a level of technical control that developers of the most advanced AI chatbots are struggling to achieve. That said, nobody thought China could have a booming tech industry and strict censorship either.
Beating China at AI
The US and China compete on many fronts, and one of them is artificial intelligence.
But China has a different set of values, which former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is not a big fan of — especially when those values shape the AI on apps his children use.
"You may not care where your kids are, and TikTok may know where your teenagers are, and that may not bother you," he says. "But you certainly don't want them to be affected by algorithms that are inspired by the Chinese and not by Western values."
For Schmidt, the Chinese government is ensuring that the internet reflects the priorities of the ruling Communist Party.
Watch his interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World:Be more worried about artificial intelligence
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