Podcast: Contrasting AI Action Plans from US, China
My conversation with Justin Hendrix for the Tech Policy Press podcast
Last week I returned from nine days in China, where I attended the World AI Conference in Shanghai and took part in a series of workshops and other gatherings with Chinese experts in tech law and policy. As it happened, the Trump administration’s “America’s AI Action Plan,” and a Chinese government “Global AI Governance Action Plan” both came out during the trip, and they form quite the contrast. In short, the US document is focused on dominance, and the Chinese one makes a pitch for an open and collaborative global approach to AI issues.
For the Tech Policy Press podcast, I spoke with Editor Justin Hendrix. Listen and read the transcript at their site:
https://www.techpolicy.press/unpacking-chinas-global-ai-governance-plan/
Here’s TPP’s intro:
On Saturday, July 26, three days after the Trump administration published its AI action plan, China’s foreign ministry released that country’s action plan for global AI governance. As the US pursues “global dominance,” China is communicating a different posture. What should we know about China’s plan, and how does it contrast with the US plan? What's at stake in the competition between the two superpowers?
To answer these questions, I reached out to a close observer of China's tech policy. Graham Webster is a lecturer and research scholar at Stanford University in the Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance, and he is the Editor-in-Chief of the DigiChina Project, a "collaborative effort to analyze and understand Chinese technology policy developments through direct engagement with primary sources, providing analysis, context, translation, and expert opinion." Webster attended the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. I spoke to him right after his return.
If you’re interested in timely and often critical views of the tech and AI policy landscape, you’ll certainly want to subscribe to their podcast. Meanwhile, let me know what you think about this one!
About Here It Comes
Here it Comes is written by me, Graham Webster, a research scholar and editor-in-chief of the DigiChina Project at the Stanford Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance. It is the successor to my earlier newsletter efforts U.S.–China Week and Transpacifica. Here It Comes is an exploration of the onslaught of interactions between US-China relations, technology, and climate change. The opinions expressed here are my own, and I reserve the right to change my mind.