Rule of Law Daily omni-media reporter Xing Dongwei Zhai Xiaogong

Currently, global artificial intelligence technology is rapidly iterating and being applied to all walks of life, entering a stage of explosive development. While creating more development opportunities, emerging technologies represented by AI also bring many risks and challenges.

From March 25th to 28th, the Boao Forum for Asia 2025 Annual Conference was held in Boao, Hainan, and AI became one of the four major topics. From the amazing technology demonstrations on site to the heated exchanges of ideas in various sub-forums, the popularity of AI continues to soar.

Chinese and foreign guests said that multi-party collaboration, dynamic governance, ethics priority, legal protection, and technological transparency are needed to promote the application and governance of artificial intelligence in a balanced manner. It does not stifle the power of innovation, but also effectively prevents possible risks, establishes a safe, reliable and trustworthy artificial intelligence system, and allows scientific and technological achievements to benefit all mankind.

Equal development of AI

"One of the hottest things in the world this year is the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Every progress in AI is so exciting." "China's development in artificial intelligence and other fields is impressive"...

In sub-forums such as "Shaping Core Competencies in AI Applications", "AI: How to Balance Application and Governance" and "Strengthening Digital Capability Building and Crossing the Digital Divide", reporters from the "Rule of Law Daily" heard many guests express such emotions.

"The rapid development of the global artificial intelligence industry has a particularly prominent impact." Zhang Yaqin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of Tsinghua University's Intelligent Industry Research Institute (AIR), said that this is the largest, systematic and large-scale innovation in the field of artificial intelligence in the past two years, and it is also China's important contribution to the world.

Jiang Xiaojuan, a university professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and former deputy secretary-general of the State Council, analyzed from an economic perspective that it broke the oligopoly situation, promoted the AI ​​industry to enter a stage of full competition, realized the transformation from technical capabilities to industrial capabilities, and established a competitive pattern in the traditional market economy.

“During the Spring Festival this year, many corporate CEOs are studying how to apply it to corporate operations.” Liu Jiangang, vice chairman of KPMG China, said that as a low-cost, open-source large-scale reasoning model, it provides a technical architecture that can be quickly deployed, and effectively promotes the equal development of AI. He proposed: "In the future, AI, like water and electricity, will become a basic resource that everyone can use."

Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the Hong Kong SAR Government, said that artificial intelligence technology is currently reshaping the global economic landscape. Hong Kong has listed artificial intelligence as a key industry, continues to promote the "artificial intelligence " action, actively promotes artificial intelligence innovation and empowers the development of all walks of life.

Riding the wave of digital transformation, artificial intelligence is reshaping enterprise operating models at an unimaginable speed. Shi Kaiwen, vice president of products at Feishu, pointed out that for the first time, AI has allowed "third-rate talents" to produce the work results of "first-rate talents", bringing new opportunities for corporate development.

Chen Guangyan, former chief economist of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore and professor of economics at Nanyang Technological University, said that China has made remarkable achievements in the field of artificial intelligence and its global competitiveness continues to increase. China is expected to become the driver of the next global productivity revolution.

Building AI safety guardrails

With the rapid development of AI technology, a disturbing scene may move from science fiction movies to reality: AI that is supposed to assist humans may make decisions that violate ethics, violate the law, and endanger human interests due to algorithm bias or external manipulation...

"Unlike steam engines, electricity and other technologies that enhance human physical strength, AI directly empowers the human brain, involving the deep integration of computing and cognition." Yang Yanqing, chief strategy officer of the Shanghai Institute of Scientific Intelligence and professor of economics at Fudan University, describes the characteristics of AI as "human-like", which allows AI to not only increase productivity, but also cause risks that threaten human survival.

According to Zeng Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert at the United Nations' high-level advisory body on artificial intelligence, the development and application of artificial intelligence and security are not mutually restrictive.

"As AI technology develops, effective 'safety guardrails' can be constructed simultaneously." Zeng Yi suggested that ethical safety be integrated into the underlying design of AI development and regarded as a "first principle" that cannot be deleted or violated. The ethical safety of AI should become the gene of technological development to ensure that it is consistent with human values.

Zhang Yaqin further decomposes AI risks into two levels: credibility and controllability. He pointed out that credibility requires AI to comply with human expectations, ethical norms and national laws when performing tasks, and not produce misleading, harmful or unfair results; controllability ensures that humans can effectively monitor, intervene and correct AI behavior to avoid out-of-control or unpredictable consequences.

"The widespread use of intelligent agents has at least doubled the risk of AI." Zhang Yaqin said that in terms of possible risks, setting technical red lines and boundaries is key. For example, restricting the self-replication of intelligent agents to reduce the risk of loss of control.

Regarding whether the safety issues of artificial intelligence can be solved by formulating standards, Vivo Chief Security Officer Lu Jinghui pointed out that safety issues cannot be solved simply by formulating laws or rules. A consensus needs to be formed, but technical consensus cannot eliminate political differences, and geopolitical realities need to be faced squarely.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act will be implemented in 2024 and sets strict transparency and accountability requirements for high-risk AI systems. In March this year, my country issued the "Measures for Labeling Synthetic Content Generated by Artificial Intelligence", becoming the first in the world to propose a "Chinese solution" to ensure the safety and credibility of artificial intelligence.

Establishing AI’s “safety guardrails” requires the multi-track parallelization of technology, market, policy, and ethics.

Setting off a new wave of AI

Where will AI take humanity? How to promote global governance of artificial intelligence? During the forum, a series of issues became the focus of heated discussion among Chinese and foreign guests, triggering people's endless imagination about the future direction of artificial intelligence.

The reporter noticed that many guests pointed out that the transformation of human society by artificial intelligence has just begun, by analogy with the discovery of electricity and the invention of the steam engine. Although today's artificial intelligence has been implemented in some fields, it is likely to give rise to new business models and reshape society in the future.

"Currently, the development of the domestic artificial intelligence industry is moving from generative AI to agent intelligence, from pre-training to inference, and from information intelligence to physical intelligence and embodied intelligence." Zhang Yaqin said that compared with humanoid robots, driverless driving is the most potential and easiest application of embodied intelligence, and is expected to be the first to achieve large-scale commercial use.

Zeng Yi proposed that the laws of natural evolution are gradually being integrated into the computing system of artificial intelligence. In the future, artificial intelligence will need to learn from natural mechanisms in computing mechanisms, including human learning, development and evolution mechanisms, which is expected to push artificial intelligence to new heights.

Nicholas Kwok, Chief Vice President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the development direction of artificial intelligence is different from the industrial revolution's simple pursuit of efficiency, and pays more attention to personalization. Taking a garment manufacturing company in Zhejiang as an example, it uses AI to achieve personalized customization of garments to meet individual needs to the greatest extent.

Shi Kaiwen believes that the development of AI is like the rise of the mobile Internet and is in the stage of gathering momentum. In the next few years, AI will achieve a comprehensive upgrade from hardware to software, creating new needs and development ideas for economic growth.

Zhu Xufeng, dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, also proposed that in the future, robot civilization may completely replace human civilization. Or, humans can transform themselves through technology, break through the limitations of bioethics, and respond to the challenges of artificial intelligence.

While many countries and institutions around the world are actively exploring opportunities for cooperation in artificial intelligence, the United States is doing the opposite. "The United States' actions such as restricting the flow of technology and setting up tariffs have seriously hindered the overall progress of global technology." said Karl Fei, professor of strategy at the Norwegian Business School and former dean of the University of Nottingham Business School (China).

Chi Yongshuo, President of Public Affairs of British Rex Group and Chairman of Elsevier, emphasized that global AI development should not be dominated by a single country. Narrow nationalism and corporate competition thinking should be abandoned and the importance of global cooperation should be emphasized.