Chinese AI expert urges focus on global impact over AI rivalry

Renowned Chinese artificial intelligence scholar Wang Jian has called for shifting attention away from China-United States AI competition, and instead focusing on which country's AI development can contribute more to the world — something he believes China can achieve through its open-source approach.

Wang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made the remarks in an interview during the country's top political advisory body's annual session.

"Many people may be concerned about the race between China and the US in AI development, but I have always felt that, strictly speaking ... what really matters is which country can make a greater contribution to the world through AI," said Wang, director of Zhejiang Lab and founder of Alibaba Group Holding's cloud computing unit.

"In particular, because we have an open-source approach, I have always believed that China is in a position to make the greatest contribution to global AI development," he said.

Wang said that what is often called "open source" in this context is in fact more accurately described as open weights — making model weights available to others — and that this reflects a level of resource commitment far beyond what many imagine.

"When you develop a large language model and open up its weights, what you are really opening to others is the computing power, and even the electricity, that has been consumed behind it," he said. "Its significance goes far beyond simply making code available."

"When code is opened, what lies behind it is mainly a programmer's intellectual effort. That creativity is priceless, of course, but the actual resources consumed may not be as large as people imagine," Wang said.

"With large models, however, opening them up may mean that huge sums of money have already been spent, massive amounts of electricity have been used, and enormous computing resources have already been consumed," he said.

"That is why I believe that when China makes its large AI models open and turns them into open-weight models, the significance goes beyond the traditional logic of open source," said the expert. "In a sense, we are defining how this new stage of development should proceed."

Wang added that as China's science and technology advances to a world-leading level, it will not only benefit the country itself, but will also help countries in the Global South and other developing nations.