
Countries are opting for flexible partnerships over closed alliances with a single superpower amidst US-China competition.
Middle powers navigating US-China AI competition favour flexible, issue-by-issue partnerships over closed alliances with a single superpower, an AI governance panel heard.
AI-generated summary
Middle powers are navigating technological competition between the United States and China.
From Southeast Asia to the Middle East, countries are opting for flexible partnerships over closed alliances with a single superpower
Middle powers navigating the US-China competition in artificial intelligence (AI) favour flexible partnerships over closed alliances, demanding a “plugged in, not locked in” approach, an AI governance panel heard on Saturday.
Alejandro Reyes, adjunct professor in the department of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said that middle powers were exercising agency in the AI era, selectively partnering with both Beijing and Washington “issue by issue” rather than aligning with a single camp.
“Countries in the middle do not want to be locked in; they want to plug in,” Reyes told a forum in Shenzhen co-hosted by the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute and the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at HKU.

The construction of a large number of data centers in Batam, Indonesia, to support the global AI boom, coupled with the effects of drought and the El Niño phenomenon, has resulted in a serious shortage of local tap water, triggering residents to protest outside the Nongsa Digital Park.

Pudu Robotics founder and CEO Felix Zhang Tao stated that humanoid robots are the company's next frontier, positioning the firm to compete with Tesla while exploring manufacturing in Europe.
As artificial intelligence technology can simulate and generate traditional ink paintings through algorithms, the recent exhibition "New Ink Painting - A Joint Exhibition of John Moores Painting Award-winning Artists" at Jiushi Art Space on the Bund 18 in Shanghai has triggered discussions on the nature of artistic creation and the value of artists in the AI era.
During the 20th Hangzhou Cultural and Creative Industry Expo, the "Cave Hunting XUNKU" project exhibited by the China Academy of Art attracted attention. This project combines AI and academic research to go beyond simple digital archiving of cultural relics and explore a new path for digital generation and contemporary translation of cave civilization.

The establishment ceremony of Hubei Provincial Government UAV Brigade and the launch ceremony of Hubei Government UAV Linkage Application Platform were held in Wuhan on the 8th. The platform has connected more than 13,000 drones and accumulated more than 120 AI recognition algorithms, promoting the transformation of government drone applications from "self-built and self-used" to "co-construction and shared use".

On November 8, the one-stop smart cultural and tourism service platform "One-Click to Play Longjiang" applet created by Heilongjiang Province was officially launched. The platform relies on digital technologies such as AI large models to create intelligent travel, image travel, online travel and pampering service sectors to fully empower ice and snow culture and tourism.