Xi Pitches China-Led AI Open-Source Community at BRICS Summit — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Xi Jinping announced at the BRICS summit in New Delhi that China will take the lead in fostering AI collaboration among developing countries, according to a Sunday statement from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- The Chinese proposals include establishing a BRICS AI open-source community, supporting cooperation in developing and applying large language models, holding AI seminars and training courses, and building an open AI ecosystem.
- Xi also proposed a BRICS digital ecosystem cloud platform, digital skills training, technological exchange, industrial alignment, a BRICS engineer cultivation alliance, and a youth exchange program for scientific and technological innovation.
- Xi did not address the AI safety debate, even as a researcher who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic said this week that many in the industry believe AI might kill all of humanity by the end of the decade.
- The AI sector is booming with companies releasing more powerful models at a frenetic pace, the source notes.
- BRICS was established in 2009 as a counterweight to Western dominance, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and has since expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the UAE.
Why it matters: Beijing is positioning itself as the AI standard-setter for the Global South across the bloc's 10 member nations, using an open-source framing that builds soft-power leverage over how AI gets built and deployed without requiring members to adopt Western regulatory norms — all while sidestepping the existential-risk debate that is reshaping policy in the US and Europe.
Ask SkimNews
