China and the US are racing ahead on AI. Can they manage risks together?

The United States and China must work together to establish safety guardrails for artificial intelligence, leading scholars and industry leaders said at a Singapore forum, warning that rapid advances in the technology demand stronger risk controls.

Speaking at the FutureChina Business Forum on Friday, Jude Blanchette, managing director of consultancy Macro Advisory Partners, urged the two superpowers to find common ground despite escalating geopolitical tensions.

“If ever there was a moment for [the US and China] to feel a strong impetus to come together, it would be now … given the shared concerns about the impact of emerging technologies, not only AI but also robotics,” Blanchette said.

He argued that the world was moving from an era shaped by traditional human behaviour to a “technocene” in which exponential technological leaps would dramatically reshape global power dynamics.