Xi Jinping urges inclusive AI development at China’s top tech summit, and crypto was nowhere on the agenda

Xi Jinping showed up in person to the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 17, marking his first physical attendance at the event since it launched in 2018. His message was pointed: AI development shouldn’t be a one-country show, and the world needs to cooperate to avoid what he called “new historical injustices.”

The keynote struck a tone of collaboration over competition. Xi cautioned against any single nation monopolizing AI development, a statement that lands differently depending on which side of the US-China tech rivalry you’re sitting on.

As a concrete gesture, China committed to providing 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities for developing countries over the next five years.

The WAIC, which runs from July 17 to July 20, will also host a High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance. That’s a separate track dedicated entirely to building collaborative frameworks for how nations should regulate and deploy AI technologies.

The entire four-day conference made zero references to cryptocurrency, blockchain, or digital assets. China banned crypto trading and mining in 2021, and it has since poured its technology ambitions into AI, quantum computing, and its central bank digital currency.

The immediate market read is straightforward: China is doubling down on AI, and it wants the developing world along for the ride. That means potential tailwinds for Chinese AI companies seeking international partnerships, particularly across Asia and Africa where those 5,000 training opportunities will likely be concentrated.

If China’s model of centralized AI governance gains traction in developing nations through these training programs, it could create regulatory environments that are similarly hostile to decentralized technologies. Soft power has downstream effects, and 5,000 trained professionals thinking about AI through Beijing’s lens is a meaningful number over a five-year horizon.

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