China expected to attend UK AI summit despite pushback from allies

LONDON — Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

That appears to be the UK’s maximum ahead of the expected visit of its top diplomat, James Cleverly, to Beijing next week.

Although the visit is shrouded in secrecy, the historic AI summit in the UK in November is likely to be high on the agenda. According to three people familiar with the UK’s plans for the AI ​​summit, Rishi Sunak’s administration is determined to involve the Chinese government in some way, despite resistance from Japan, the United States and the European Union.

“If you were a betting man, I think you would see China there in a way,” said a UK government official familiar with planning the summit. They were granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Westminster officials have been racking their brains for months over how to engage the Chinese without upsetting key allies. Any invitation to Beijing also risks angering the rowdy tribe of Conservative MPs who have been pressing the UK government to take a tougher line on China.

But London is interested in making the AI ​​security summit as broad-based as possible and is reluctant to exclude one of the world’s most advanced technological powers. China is second only to the United States in terms of turtles. Global AI Index.

How to do it is still a live question.

‘An obligation to commit’

Japan continues to recede against perspective of a Chinese invitation, believing it is too early to involve the country in the summit when democratic nations have yet to find a common position on AI governance. Both US and EU officials told POLITICO that they would prefer China not participate, though they acknowledged that it was up to London to make the final decision on its next AI meeting.

Keeping everyone happy will require some diplomatic gymnastics, and the Chinese are likely to participate on the fringes of the summit rather than more centrally. “They are trying to reach a deal on China,” said an industry representative briefed by UK government officials on the latest thinking.

That could involve the country in political discussions at the summit but not participate in major diplomatic events, the person added.

The November summit will focus on the most advanced AI, called frontier models. The aim is to build on ongoing work in various international fora, including the OECD Hiroshima AI Process and the G7, as well as the White House commitments getting larger labs to sign up to more detailed, but still voluntary, plans for the safe development and deployment of new models.

Meanwhile, the Japanese are raising an alternative proposal to engage China: hold ministerial meetings with China through the G7 instead. Nikkei Asia Reports. The G7, which Japan is chairing this year, is already looking at how to regulate generative AI.

British pressure to include the Chinese points to London’s increasingly dovish stance towards China.

In a speech in April, Sunak’s foreign secretary, Cleverly, said that while Britain would denounce the authoritarian state on certain human rights issues, it could not evade the country.

“We have an obligation to engage with future generations because, otherwise, we would be failing in our duty to sustain – and shape – the international order. To evade that challenge would be a sign not of strength but of weakness,” he said, as he spent considerable time extolling Chinese innovations throughout history.

About the AI, smartly told the United Nations Security Council in July that no country will be left untouched by AI, so “we must engage and engage the broadest coalition of international players from all sectors,” while AI Minister Jonathan Berry told POLITICO last month that China will have to get involved “one way or another.” others” in global conversations on how to address the risks of AI.

British thinking on China reflects fears that removing the superpower could accelerate the global fragmentation of AI.

More recently, the five countries involved in the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) announced that they are creating a “study group” on artificial intelligence focused on technical collaboration and governance, at their summit this week. The fact was announced by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a speech at the group’s summit in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Despite London’s willingness to get Beijing to the table, it has yet to make a final decision on whether to invite China to the November summit, according to three UK government officials. Although much of the summit organization is handled by the Foreign Office and the UK Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Number 10 is expected to make the final decision on the guest list.

A spokesman for Number 10 said they would not comment on the invitations.

internal tensions

On the domestic front, an invitation to China also risks inflaming tensions between Rishi Sunak and hardline lawmakers from his own party.

Iain Duncan Smith, an influential MP and former party leader, previously told POLITICO that he is against an invitation to Beijing, although fellow China hawks Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons defense committee, and Alicia Kearns, chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, have both expressed their support. “We should try to collaborate with them,” Kearns said.

Brussels is also divided on the issue.

While the European Commission opposes an invitation to China, Dragoş Tudorache, a centrist Romanian MEP who is a key negotiator on EU AI rules, said Beijing should be at the table.

“It is essential that the democracies of the world have a common vision, but I believe that this debate must also go beyond that. I think everyone needs to be around the table,” she said.

Stuart Lau in Brussels and Mark Scott in London contributed reporting.