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## China’s Views on AI Safety Are Changing—Quickly

Beijing’s AI safety concerns are higher on the priority list, but they remain tied up in geopolitical competition and technological advancement.

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By[Matt Sheehan](https://carnegieendowment.org/people/matt-sheehan)

Published onAug 27, 2024

Over the past two years, China’s artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem has undergone a significant shift in how it views and discusses AI safety. For many years, some of the leading AI scientists in Western countries have been warning that future AI systems could become powerful enough to pose [catastrophic risks](https://www.safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk) to humanity. Concern over these risks—often grouped under the umbrella term “AI safety”—has sparked new fields of technical research and led to the creation of governmental AI safety institutes in the [United States](https://www.nist.gov/aisi), the [United Kingdom](https://www.aisi.gov.uk/), and elsewhere. But for most of the past five years, it was unclear whether these concerns about extreme risks were shared by Chinese scientists or policymakers.

Today, there is mounting evidence that China does indeed share these concerns. A growing number of research papers, public statements, and government documents suggest that China is treating AI safety as an increasingly urgent concern, one worthy of significant technical investment and potential regulatory interventions. Momentum around AI safety first began to build within China’s elite technical community, and it now appears to be gaining some traction in the country’s top policy circles. In a potentially significant move, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released a major policy document in July 2024 that included a call to create “oversight systems to ensure the safety of artificial intelligence.”

There remain major open questions about the specific contours of China’s concerns over AI safety and what it intends to do about them. But the growing political and technical salience of these issues is significant for AI safety and governance globally. China is the key competitor for the United States in advanced AI, and that competition is a core dynamic shaping AI development globally. China’s leaders are acutely concerned with falling further behind the United States and are pushing hard to catch up in advanced AI. How China approaches building those frontier AI systems—the risks it sees and the safeguards it builds in—will influence the safety of systems built in China and around the world.

### Contested Science and Translation Troubles

Before examining the evidence of this shift in China, it is important to note that, globally, AI safety remains a deeply contested concept on both a technol

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