Voice from Shanghai: Germany should work with China to break US dominance

Berliner Zeitung Voice from Shanghai: Germany should work with China to break US dominance Michael Maier • 4 hours • 3 minutes reading time The US technology companies want to continue investing massively in artificial intelligence (AI). The companies are clearly not being slowed down by warnings that were recently made and caused a shock in technology stocks. The Chinese company DeepSeek had presented a model that costs a fraction of the money and delivers comparably good results. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta have invested a total of $246 billion in 2024, reports the Financial Times (FT), up from $151 billion in 2023. This year they want to increase the sum to $320 billion. The funds are to be used to build data centers for chip clusters. According to the FT, the companies believe the effort is necessary "to stay at the forefront of research into large AI language models". In China, this development is being watched with concern, and not only for competitive reasons. Jiang Feng, Professor of European Studies at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and Chairman of the Board of Shanghai Academy for Global Governance and Area Studies (SAGGAS), sees the "combination of technological AI monopoly and political centralization to form political oligarchies" as particularly problematic. The "increasing control over the generation, ownership, participation and distribution of data and information distorts the political ecology." Artificial intelligence is "dominated by a few countries and companies." Chip manufacturer Nvidia holds 90 percent of the GPU market and 80 percent of AI chips. Jiang: "The unprecedented technological monopoly leads to a high concentration of wealth and power, which is not good news for humanity's pursuit of political equality and general prosperity." A few large technology companies are getting bigger and bigger and are using this for political ambitions. This was recently shown by Elon Musk's activities in the EU. Jiang notes that "technological interventions in politics are becoming more and more frequent at both the national and international levels." The combination of technological and economic monopolies is creating global economic oligarchies in which "a few large technology companies are getting bigger and bigger and the majority are being marginalized to their disadvantage." The global economic system is losing its "healthy balance." In order to restore balance, monopolies must be prevented. Jiang sees the EU as a role model in this regard because it has an "effective regulatory system." Europe is "still free of AI monopolies and the resulting concentration of power." Europe's approach to striking a balance between promotion and restriction in the field of AI technology is exemplary. Germany is a "pioneer" in this regard. Jiang gives an interesting assessment of the Chinese perspective: "The Chinese, who generally trust technological progress, have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the negative effects of technological progress, especially the misuse and violation of personal data. The EU has a proven track record of restricting algorithmic technology and data access to protect individual rights, and China has also introduced regulations in this area. There is room for cooperation between China and Europe in this regard, and they can jointly contribute to global AI development and governance.” To achieve these goals, China and Germany should work together on AI. Both countries play a leading role in artificial intelligence, although still well behind the US. Neither has the “problem of high concentration of political power through the high-tech monopoly.” Germany and China strive to “maintain a balance between technology and politics.” Both also want “AI governance at a global level,” which would form the basis for cooperation between the two countries. From a practical point of view, China and Germany could work together on AI in non-sensitive areas such as climate change, healthcare and open source. Jiang regrets that the previously close cooperation between Chinese and German universities, research institutes and companies in the field of AI has been weakened in recent years by the “de-risking” policy: “German universities have been warned by German authorities, including the BMBF, that cooperation with Chinese universities could endanger Germany’s national interests.