Balancing AI growth with global guardrails

During Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Helsinki this summer, discussions with Finnish officials centered on enhancing the governance of artificial intelligence.

History shows that when technology amplifies the scale of human capabilities — as seen through innovations such as steam engines, aviation, nuclear technologies and the internet — governance structures must also evolve.

The rapid development of foundational models and agentic AI systems is exponentially increasing AI capabilities. This raises critical questions about safety, accountability and human oversight.

AI technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that traditional national and global governance institutions have struggled to keep up.

This is equally true across the world.

AI has the potential to significantly transform economies.

The leaders of both China and the United States certainly recognize this potential, which is why the two countries are attaching great importance to this area.

Finland, too, is building innovative digital ecosystems, leveraging its strong research capabilities and a diverse network of startups, deep-tech companies, universities and public innovation actors. The country has long been a pioneer of new technologies and digitalization. Today, digitalization is embedded across education, industrial policy and public administration, creating a solid foundation for the rollout of AI.

While competition in the AI space will continue, we must recognize that we share a common interest in ensuring that these technologies remain safe and do not undermine the future of human existence.

These technologies have global reach, which means that leading global economies should not try to unilaterally regulate this space and formulate rules for the rest of the world to follow. Despite the current challenges in China-EU and China-US relations, it is essential to have a dialogue on the governance of AI. China and the US have now agreed to establish an AI dialogue to exchange views on the risks and benefits of AI, with the next meeting scheduled for this November. They have also agreed to establish a bilateral channel for communicating about AI incidents. This is an important first step, but it is only a beginning. Establishing guardrails is necessary to prevent AI from being used in ways that are detrimental to the future of humanity.

AI is increasingly being used to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion toward specific political objectives through deepfakes. This is something that we in Europe are particularly wary of — and we are working hard to prevent malicious activities that challenge the ways in which our political systems work.

In times of increasing global instability and conflict, it is vital to also establish ground rules restricting the use of AI technologies in warfare. This can help avoid unnecessary loss of life. For example, there should be global efforts to strictly limit the use of AI in developing autonomous weapons systems, because we must always have a human in the loop when it comes to the use of deadly force.

As we have seen in the aviation sector, transparent safety standards can drive success by enabling rather than stifling innovation. This should perhaps be our guide to AI governance, enabling the establishment of global standards that will make AI safe for the world.

Any international framework must address privacy, data sovereignty and the management of cross-border data flows.

AI governance is increasingly seen as a national security and economic competitiveness issue among major powers. In Finland, the government has been quite clear that safeguarding overall security can only be achieved if technological capabilities, economic competitiveness, and social and ecological resilience are effectively managed. AI governance is central to these aspects. We can build on our strong tradition of technology regulation, which has effectively balanced innovation with trust.

AI is already reshaping the way businesses operate, and how the economy as a whole develops. Cooperation does not require agreement on every aspect of digital governance. Establishing common standards in areas such as AI safety, transparency and risk management is in the interests of all countries.

Despite rising geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions across the world, AI governance presents an opportunity for Europe, China and the US to maintain dialogue and develop common standards.

The author is the former prime minister of Finland.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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