Billionaire Elon Musk reportedly admires the determination of the Chinese people, including in the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence.
"As long as the Chinese people decide to do well in one thing, they will, including in AI," Musk told attendees during a video feed at World AI Conference in Shanghai, a Chinese government-backed conference on Thursday, according to Bloomberg News.
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The outlet noted that the Tesla CEO had called for more regulatory oversight of artificial intelligence as well.
Musk was one of thousands who signed a controversial open letter earlier this year calling for the pause of the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
The South China Morning Post reported that Musk spoke for eight minutes – neglecting to mention tensions between China and the U.S. that impact AI development, including export restrictions.
Separately, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in China this week in efforts to smooth relations with the U.S.
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Musk, who also founded SpaceX, make his remarks after a visit to China in May. Musk toured Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, praising hundreds of workers for their "amazing" work. Tesla opened the first wholly foreign-owned auto factory in China in 2019.
Musk met with China's foreign minister Qin Gang in Beijing and, according to the foreign ministry office, said he was open to expanding the automaker's business there.
A statement from the Chinese ministry cited the Twitter owner as saying he "opposes decoupling," referring to fears that the world may split into multiple markets with incompatible products.
Musk is one of several American CEOs, including JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, who have visited the country in recent months.
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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed deep concerns about the May meeting.
"I’m breaking an unspoken rule in the GOP, but I call it like I see it: it’s deeply concerning that @elonmusk met with China’s foreign ministry yesterday to oppose decoupling and referred to the U.S. & Communist China as ‘conjoined twins,’" Ramaswamy tweeted. "Tesla’s VP in China reposted that statement on Weibo in China, but curiously not here in the U.S."
Fox Business' Greg Wehner and Timothy Nerozzi, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
