Xi Jinping: China ready for open-source AI, criticizes US barriers

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for greater open-source development of artificial intelligence on Friday, positioning China as a global leader in sharing AI technology while criticizing US restrictions. Speaking at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Xi outlined four key observations, starting with a call for openness. "We should seize this rare, historic opportunity to encourage open-source, openness, collaboration, and sharing," he said. Many major Chinese AI models are already open-source, including DeepSeek, which surprised Silicon Valley last year. Newer competitors like Kimi K3 and Z.ai's GLM 5.2 also share their code publicly. In contrast, most leading US models are closed. Meta open-sourced its general Llama models but keeps its Muse Spark model private. OpenAI's models are closed despite the name, and Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei has called open-source models a "dangerous path" because companies cannot control misuse. Xi took a different view. "China is ready to be more open, take more practical actions, and assume a more visionary perspective," he said. His second observation called for global AI regulation, including "technological monitoring" and "early response systems." He also criticized US protectionism, saying the world should "jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the feud of AI or placing one country's security over that of others." US leaders have long been cautious of China's AI advances. President Donald Trump delayed an executive order on AI, fearing it could weaken US companies' lead over China. China has not always shared freely. The government ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Manus, a Chinese AI startup that had moved to Singapore. Xi also urged using AI to "increase understanding, tolerance, exchanges, and sharing." Earlier in his speech, he asked how to "realize AI for all when the divide keeps widening." His answer came in a fourth observation: the world should "advocate solidarity and improve global governance." He vowed to provide 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities to countries with less advanced technology.