EXCLUSIVE: China offered European Commission to join its AI alliance | Rapporteur

China offered the European Commission a place in its international AI alliance, Rapporteur has learned, after the EU executive recently informed EU governments of Beijing’s offer.

China and the United States are both trying to bolster their lead in the race to build more powerful AI models by devising new political structures to steer the tech. Europe, at best a middle power in the race, is deciding how to chart its own AI course.

This summer, China founded the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), which aims to promote international cooperation on AI. 28 other countries joined at the outset, reportedly including Russia, Indonesia and Kazakhstan.

It now transpires that WAICO backers could also include the EU executive. On Tuesday, the Commission informed national experts that Beijing had offered for it to join the initiative, according to three diplomats briefed on the talks.

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The Commission did not comment when Rapporteur sought confirmation of Beijing’s offer nor specify whether it had replied to the offer.

The Chinese mission to the EU did not reply to our questions about the matter. No EU country is reported to have joined WAICO. Germany’s digital ministry told Rapporteur in August that it had no plans to do so.

European scepticism towards WAICO is unsurprising, especially given that any move to align with China on AI would be viewed as hostile by Washington.

The US established its own international tech organisation, Pax Silica, late last year. Officially this aims to secure the complex global supply chain for AI, although its practical purpose remains murky.

The European Commission signed Pax Silica this summer on behalf of the entire EU.

The US State Department also lists several European governments – Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden – as signatories.

Pax Silica also has a secondary initiative purely focused on AI opportunities, to which 20 EU governments are listed as signatories, although not the Commission itself.

In August, Reuters reported that Washington was set to warn signatories to the AI opportunity portion of Pax Silica that they couldn’t also be part of China’s WAICO, which would – potentially – formalise both groups as opposing AI blocs.

(nl, ow)