China, U.S. should handle AI challenges in responsible manner: expert

China and the United States should handle the challenges and risks in the artificial intelligence (AI) field proactively and responsibly, and share AI governance beyond the distillation dispute, experts said.

China-U.S. competition and cooperation in AI remain under global attention, with 'distillation' -- a common technique in which one model is trained from the outputs of another -- a recent focus.

For months, China and the U.S. have seen model distillation differently. Gai Keke, vice president of the Zhongguancun Academy, has been an AI security researcher for years. He notes that model distillation is mainly a tool for efficiency rather than original breakthroughs.

"Distillation is a relatively universal artificial intelligence technique. AI companies worldwide, whether Chinese or American, widely use this technique to optimize models and improve efficiency. From this point of view, everybody is equal in front of technological tools. What's more important is that the essence of distillation is catching up, not surpassing," said Gai.

Even OpenAI executive Dean Ball said distillation is not the main driver of recent Chinese AI advances. Insiders point instead to foundational research and engineering breakthroughs in model architecture and training methods.

"What the U.S. seeks to preserve is not merely America's advantage, but America's hegemony. Their logic is this: AI must be monopolized by the United States alone," said Shen Yi, a professor of International Politics at Fudan University.

But can AI technology really be monopolized? Industry observers believe AI has now reached a stage where no single country can complete all innovation behind closed doors.

"As two major AI powers, China and U.S. should make 'sharing risks, jointly building rules, and jointly governing' their top priority," said Gai.

China, U.S. should handle AI challenges in responsible manner: expert

China's four global initiatives have moved beyond abstract concepts to deliver solid impacts and tangible benefits to countries around the world, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong said.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Fu pushed back against claims that the initiatives are empty concepts designed only to serve China's own interests, offering concrete examples of their implementation.

"Let's take the Global Development Initiative for an example. As we say, we have mobilized 23 billion U.S. dollars in funding, and then we have funded 1,800 projects in over 100 countries. These are concrete products. And actually, I myself have witnessed some of the very successful products like the Juncao. It's quite famous. Juncao is a Chinese term, but actually it's quite famous in the UN already. And I saw with my own eyes how these, what we call the small and beautiful projects, how they are doing in the Global South countries, the countries I visited, Tanzania and Rwanda. They are very much welcomed," he said.

Fu concluded that the initiatives represent China's unique contribution to addressing shared problems and global challenges.

"The four global initiatives are not for China alone. It is global in nature. That is, as we often say, the Chinese solution to the world's problems," he said.

China's global initiatives deliver tangible results in over 100 countries: Chinese envoy