Inside the AI back-channel between China and the West

Computer scientists are reaching out across the geopolitical divide to try to stop an apocalypse

Business group walks around the gardens of the Summer Palace of Beijing arguing about AI

By Peter Guest

One day this March in the Summer Palace of Beijing, a tour guide was struggling to hold his group’s attention. Instead of taking in the magnificent pavilions of the imperial gardens, the tourists – a gaggle of Western and Chinese technology experts – were more interested in talking to each other. “I felt sorry for the guy,” one of them recalled. “People are walking around this UNESCO World Heritage site, and it’s, like, beautiful, but they’re arguing about AI.”

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