Chinese and US experts agree AI use in defence sector must be restricted

Limiting AI use in military applications and ensuring global AI governance could ease collaboration and dialogue between China and the US as they vie for influence over the transformative technology, according to experts at a forum in Hong Kong on Monday.

Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said AI regulation in the military domain and global governance that aimed to address universal challenges could provide common ground for China and the US to foster bilateral cooperation.

Speaking on the sidelines of the US-China Hong Kong Forum, Sun said the active engagement of major powers in governance was the basis for Global South countries to take part, but that tensions between China and the US, who led AI development, made effective AI governance cooperation “logically difficult”.

“There is no good that would come out of having AI go off and develop bioweapons that are easy to replicate, or you can spread around the world,” he said.