One of China's top search engine companies, Baidu Inc, becomes the first Chinese company to become a member of a top artificial intelligence (AI) ethics group despite the political clashes between China and the United States over AI technology.
On Tuesday, the Partnership on AI (PAI), which includes members like Google, Apple and Facebook, announced Baidu's inclusion to its ranks and adds "Baidu's admission represents the beginning of PAI's entrance into China. We will continue to add new members in China and around the world as we grow."
Baidu is recognized by the Chinese government as one of the four national AI champions last year and it has been investing heavily on developing autonomous driving and deep learning.
Its inclusion to the PAI comes as both US and Chinese companies are looking for ways to cooperate on AI technology despite the political conflicts between the two countries over technology transfers.
Last year, China declared that it plans to become a world leader in AI by 2025 and plans to invest around $400 billion in the industry to reach their goals. The US government did not like this plan, fearing the possibility that China would be able to access technology that would give them a strategic military advantage.
Despite this fact, US companies have been introducing their AI presence in China, while Baidu and other AI firms from China are opening AI research labs in the United States. The Chinese cyber ministry had even hosted Google, Amazon and Microsoft last month in the country's annual AI forum with all three companies having AI research labs in China.
At the forum, the Chinese government stressed that China's AI technology research will be ethically conducted and they will also be working on providing training for workers who will lose their jobs to AI.
