Chinese artificial intelligence scientists have joined with leading western academics to call for tighter controls on the technology than those being proposed by the UK, US and EU, as nations set out rival positions ahead of this week’s global AI safety summit.Several Chinese academic attendees of the summit at Bletchley Park, England, which starts on Wednesday, have signed on to a statement that warns that advanced AI will pose an “existential risk to humanity” in the coming decades.

The group, which includes Andrew Yao, one of China’s most prominent computer scientists, calls for the creation of an international regulatory body, the mandatory registration and auditing of advanced AI systems, the inclusion of instant “shutdown” procedures, and for developers to spend 30 per cent of their research budget on AI safety.

The proposals are more focused on existential risk than US President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, issued earlier this week, which encompasses algorithmic discrimination and labour-market impacts, as well as the European Union’s proposed AI Act, which focuses on protecting rights such as privacy.