The first official AI agenda at the summit… Differences in perspectives on development and control
Government maintains ‘speed responsibility theory’… Technical competency/normative leadership tasks
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hayoung Kwon = Artificial intelligence (AI) was put on the official agenda of the US-China summit for the first time, but this meeting became an opportunity to reaffirm the gap between the two countries over the competition for AI hegemony rather than a starting point for cooperation.
The United States maintained its current stance and stated that it would continue the race to develop AI, but China also emphasized human control and prevention of misuse and abuse, revealing differences in its approach to regulation and safety.
If the U.S. and China do not slow down the pace of AI competition but fail to find common ground on norms, the burden on Korea to speed up the catch-up and secure technological capabilities and leadership in norms that are not dependent on either side is expected to increase further.
◇ AI became the first normal agenda… Confirmation of time difference in regulation and control between the US and China
At the US-China summit held at the White House in Washington DC on the 24th (local time), the two countries brought AI to the official discussion table for the first time.
As the so-called 'speed control theory', which calls for slowing down the pace of AI development, was rapidly emerging, centered around the heads of global big tech, there were many expectations that AI-related discussions could be reached at this US-China summit.
However, the two leaders' perspectives on AI showed clear differences.
Prior to the meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned 'super intelligence (SI)' on the social networking service (SNS) Truth Social and said, "I want to leave this issue as is. China's position is the same."
SI is President Trump's different term for AI, ultimately indicating his intention to continue AI development while maintaining the current regulatory system.
On the other hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that "China and the United States are both AI powers" and "have the ability and responsibility to develop and regulate AI well."
President Xi emphasized that “AI development must always be controlled by people and make people happy,” and that “the two sides must continue AI dialogue to jointly prevent misuse and abuse.”
A plan to form a 'hotline' where both countries share information in the event of an AI-related accident has also emerged as an issue. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant expressed expectations the day before the summit, saying, "I believe China will agree," but there was no mention from either side suggesting the establishment of a hotline after the summit.
◇ The competition for AI hegemony continues… Opportunity and uncertainty in Korea
The situation in which the U.S. and China reveal a clear difference in position on the AI issue presents Korea with both short-term opportunities and mid- to long-term variables.
In the short term, there are observations that if the U.S.-China AI competition continues, there will be no immediate significant changes in market trends such as demand for semiconductors and AI infrastructure.
Jiyoung Han, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, predicted before this meeting, "If the meeting is concluded at a level that confirms the continuation of AI competition, it will lower the possibility of the policy of slowing down AI development becoming a reality, and this will improve investment sentiment across AI infrastructure, including semiconductors."
However, it should also be noted that uncertainty increases in the mid- to long-term.
If the gap between the U.S. and China's inability to find common ground on the AI issue continues for a long time, Korea may be asked to choose which camp's standards it will follow or whether it will be able to raise its own voice.
Market analysis that it is highly likely that America's advanced semiconductor export controls to China will continue to remain in place as a security barrier is also a variable.
◇ ‘Speed responsibility’ between the US and China… Independent AI capabilities and norms leadership task
As both the U.S. and China reaffirmed at this meeting that they have no intention of slowing down the AI competition, it is expected that an environment in which Korea will also find it difficult to slow down will continue.
The Korean government has already made its independent stance clear.
On the 16th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Baek-hoon drew a line regarding the AI speed control theory on his SNS, saying, "The slowdown of a country that is already ahead and the slowdown of a follower are different issues," and emphasized, "What AI needs is not speed control, but speed responsibility."
Deputy Prime Minister Bae also announced his intention to pursue the development of an independent foundation model, security-specialized model project, and frontier AI model project without a hitch while establishing a safety and trust basis based on the Basic AI Act under the principle that "speed is competitiveness, and safety is sustainability."
In fact, on the 22nd, the government officially launched the 'Cybersecurity Specialized AI Model Development' project hosted by the Naver Cloud Consortium and shared the goal of building a security AI within 10 months that is comparable to the frontier AI models of the United States and China.
Depending on the direction in which the US-China AI debate develops in the future, the landscape of global AI norms may change. For Korea, it is expected that the future task will be not only to watch the movements of the United States and China, but to actively participate in the design of international norms and at the same time secure its own AI technology capabilities.
