EU and China seek AI cooperation amid trade tensions

The EU and China might become partners in the artificial intelligence sector, as both are trying to catch up with the United States. The EU has so far treated China as a rival and a risk in AI and digital technologies. But after the second round of trade talks in Beijing earlier this month, the Chinese commerce ministry stated that the two economies have big potential for joint work in new energy, AI, trade in services, the digital economy and green low-carbon areas.

Those discussions involved EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Chinese commerce secretary Wang Wentao. At last week’s summit in Brussels, EU leaders broadly saw the talks as a positive initial move. Beijing promised to cut electric vehicle exports and to keep rare earth supplies open without new export limits. Both sides committed to at least six more months of negotiations on various trade conflicts.

A group from the European Parliament’s international trade committee will travel to China for three days starting 27 October. A visit to a robotics factory is on the schedule. Committee chairman Bernd Lange told reporters that Unitree Robotics would be “at the heart of Chinese industry in the future.” The company uses its own humanoid robots, equipped with embodied AI, to help build and assemble more robots. China leads the world in robotics, with Lange’s Germany as its main European competitor.