Speaking via a video link, Musk said he admires the “wisdom and determination” of the Chinese people who, according to him, can “do well” in the AI sphere if they so decide.
“I think, really, China is going to be great at anything it puts its mind into. That includes many different sectors – sectors of the economy, but also artificial intelligence,” he said as quoted by the media.
The entrepreneur has also once again argued that “it’s important to have some sort of regulatory oversight” in the AI sphere, noting that humans should be “very careful with development of, especially artificial general intelligence, or very deep intelligence.”
“Artificial general intelligence is a computer intelligence that is smarter than all humans at everything … that is something we should be concerned about,” Musk said.
Meanwhile, one Hong Kong-based newspaper points out that Musk did not directly address the US-led restrictions on semiconductor exports and cloud computing services to China, with the media outlet pointing out that such measures may cripple Beijing’s efforts in developing AI.
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference launched this week in Shanghai, where it has been held annually since 2018. The event is sponsored by such China-based heavyweights as the Alibaba Group Holding, Huawei Technologies and SenseTime.
The event’s co-sponsors also included China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Cyberspace Administration of China.
Despite the strained relations between the United States and China, delegates from US big tech companies such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft were reportedly expected to attend the event to discuss issues such as robotics, large language models, robotics, blockchain and the metaverse.
The conference is being held amid the ongoing trade war between China and the United States, with the US actively trying to undermine the high tech sector of the Chinese economy with sanctions and export restrictions.