With the AI Safety Summit and the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last month, there was a lot to analyse in November for the UK tech industry.
China’s role at the AI summit dominated the headlines, with former Prime Minister Liz Truss among its most vocal critics. The event, which was attended by 28 countries and the heads of some of the world’s most valuable and influential technology companies, including Meta, Google and X/Twitter, illustrated the scale of an issue that has become deeply ingrained in the public consciousness over the past year.
It is heartening to see many of these leaders setting aside past preconceptions and geopolitical differences: AI crosses borders, and excluding countries that represent 17% of the world’s population would have been an extraordinary omission.
That very same month, President Xi Jinping and President Biden also met to try to address some of their differences.
International cooperation is fundamental to progress
The Summit recognized that cooperation between nations is crucial to the future of AI. It was therefore a wise decision to involve a country that is at the forefront of international AI research. A global problem like AI safety will inevitably require an international solution. The Bletchley Declaration, signed by China, agreed at the AI Summit was a major step towards this.
However, the very presence of the Chinese delegation drew criticism from some quarters, despite its fairly limited involvement in the discussions.
Indeed, Liz Truss’s open letter to the government summed up the rifts around this contentious issue, writing that she was “deeply disturbed” by Rishi Sunak’s invitation to China and warning of a “careless attitude towards international law”.
But the current prime minister’s response has been in stark contrast to his predecessor: Had the summit taken place a year ago, no interim reconciliation offer would have been made, leaving a gaping hole in the discussions.
Without the involvement of the world’s second largest economy and a major international technology hub, serious progress on the issue of AI regulation could not have been achieved.
China’s Technology Ecosystem – A UK Tech Advocates Perspective
In November, UK Tech Advocates and Tech West England Advocates led the first tech-focused trade mission to Hong Kong since Hong Kong opened up post-pandemic. Over a week, the delegation toured the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park and Hong Kong Cyberport. Our community also launched Tech Hong Kong Advocates with Preface, a key Hong Kong edtech company with a presence in the UK.
I then traveled with leaders from Tech China Advocates to Chongqing, Wuxi, and Shanghai. While Shanghai is well known to most, the first two may be less so. For reference, Chongqing is a municipality with a population roughly three times that of London. Wuxi also has a sizeable population, last estimated at 7.5 million. I visited innovation zones in all three cities.
There will always be concerns around China, and underlying political differences are no doubt difficult to ignore, but given the size and influence of China’s market, some level of engagement is important to understand what is happening in these key locations.
What can the West learn from China when it comes to technology?
China has become a highly innovative country, with some of its technologies surpassing many Western countries. For example, China has become the largest and most important market for electric vehicles (EVs). Shanghai is home to the National Eastern Technology Transfer Center, a national-level regional technology transfer platform, and the scale of corporate and government innovation programs and focus on university spin-outs are significant.
China’s success in technology is due in large part to its commitment to science-based education. 22 Chinese universities are listed in the Academic Rankings of World Universities, second only to the United States in overall representation.
Tuition fees are much lower in China, with many courses costing around £2,600 per year compared to more than £9,000 for UK students, making tech knowledge easier to gain in China. Developing the next generation of tech leaders starts with providing learning opportunities, and China is investing in this approach.
Clearly, there is work to be done to overcome the difficult differences that have created a divide between China and the rest of the world. Technology can be an important means of cooperation, and addressing the tensions over AI at Bletchley was undoubtedly an important step.
It may not be an easy journey, but technology could hold the key to opening up mutually beneficial trade routes. Chinese and UK technology companies could find ways to penetrate each other’s markets, particularly in areas where both markets are addressing common issues and challenges, such as climate technology, healthcare and the energy transition.
Russ Shaw CBE is the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates and a regular columnist for UKTN.
