From September 3rd to 6th, the first Workshop on AI Capacity building jointly organized by China and the United Nations and hosted by was held in Shanghai. On September 3rd, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Ma Zhaoxu, Vice Foreign Minister, delivered a video speech. Chen Jie, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, was also present and addressed a speech.
Mr. Guterres pointed out that the world is at a historic critical moment. AI is developing and changing the world at an alarming rate, and will help achieve the sustainability goals. At the same time, AI opportunities are not fairly distributed, and many countries have not really benefited from them. In order to fully tap the potential of AI, the international community needs to strengthen unity and cooperation to bridge the intelligence gap. He emphasized that the United Nations has unique advantages in promoting and supporting international exchanges and cooperation in artificial intelligence. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution on strengthening international cooperation in AI capacity building proposed by China. This workshop will help to implement the above resolutions and promote further cooperation among all parties. It is expected that the international community will join hands to promote the development and governance of AI and create a fairer and better future for all mankind.
Mr. Ma stated that last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the "Global AI Governance Initiative", proposing China's plan around the major issue of the times of global governance of AI. China expects the future summit of the United Nations to further build consensus on the global AI governance and give full play to the leading role of the United Nations. He pointed out that China advocates strengthening AI capacity building and promoting fair and inclusive global governance. This July, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on strengthening international cooperation in AI capacity building proposed by China, which reflected the common voice of the international community. China is both an advocate and an implementer, and hopes that this workshop will become a technical exchange meeting, experience sharing meeting and pragmatic cooperation meeting.
Mr. Chen explained that in recent years, Shanghai has regarded AI as a leading industry for key development, focusing on building Shanghai’s AI Highland and creating a world-class high-end industrial cluster. Key core technologies continue to make breakthroughs, open source and open systems continue to be optimized, and the industrial innovation ecosystem continues to improve. Shanghai is willing to work hand in hand with all parties to promote AI to better empower thousands of industries and benefit thousands of households. We warmly welcome all guests to strengthen innovative cooperation with Shanghai in the field of AI, share the broad opportunities of China's development in the new era, and jointly promote the AI industry to benefit people of all countries.
