Xi Jinping calls for risk awareness to ensure AI always under human control

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday underlined the need to strengthen risk awareness and ensure that artificial intelligence is secure and controllable while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai.

Xi emphasized that while AI holds immense potential, it must be governed by strict safeguards and remain firmly in human hands when he presented four observations on AI development and governance.

"AI should be a trusted tool for humanity. We should take seriously the various types of inherent and secondary risks that AI may trigger. We should put in place laws and regulations, technological monitoring, early warning and emergency response systems in order to strengthen the line of security, prevent abuses and malicious use, and ensure that AI is always under human control," he said.

Xi urged all sides to jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or placing one country's security over that of others.