Illustration: Chen Xia/GT
As artificial intelligence (AI) advances at an unprecedented pace, the security risks and ethical challenges it could bring have been increasingly prominent. How to foster innovation while effectively managing ethical risks is a pressing global challenge. Facing the problem, China has moved forward with practical action to explore responsible AI innovation.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced the launch of a pilot program to implement a trial guideline on the ethics review and services of AI technology, according to an official notice posted on the MIIT’s website. The program will be rolled out in the provinces that host national AI innovation programs and application pilot zones, taking the lead in exploring useful approaches to AI ethics.
The program marks a meaningful shift from advocacy of ethical norms to practical implementation and systematic governance. It encourages enterprises, universities and research institutions to step up research and development on effective ethical governance tools. The move will enable AI technology to operate for good, trying to mitigate potential security risks and ethical hazards.
What is AI ethics? AI itself possesses no independent consciousness, and all its decision-making logic is driven by underlying algorithms. If algorithms are designed without explicitly incorporating ethical principles such as fairness, integrity, and respect for others, while seek to pursue maximum efficiency or profit only, the more advanced AI technology becomes, the greater the potential risks.
Now, the international community broadly fears that without proper regulation, the misuse and abuse of AI could harm human dignity and equality, violate human rights, exacerbate social discrimination and bias, disrupt existing legal systems, and have far-reaching impacts on government administration, national defense, social stability, and more.
The global AI governance landscape has been fragmented for some time, and a universally accepted code of conduct is still absent. Public anxiety about how AI risks should be managed runs high in the world. In this context, the development of AI should never be framed as an either-or choice between innovation and ethics.
Genuine technological progress lies precisely in embedding ethical considerations throughout the entire cycle of AI research, development, application, and iteration, making ethics a guardian of innovation rather than an obstacle. Only in this way can AI truly move on the right path that benefits humanity and help maintain sustainable economic and social development in the long run.
In recent years, China has been committed to building a community with a shared future for the mankind in the domain of AI, advocating a people-centered approach and the principle of AI for good. China finds it important to enhance the understanding of all countries on AI ethics, and ensure that AI is safe, reliable, controllable, and capable of better empowering global sustainable development and enhancing the common well-being of all mankind.
Regarding policies, China has been building up its AI governance framework step by step. According to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), China will accelerate tech innovation and regulation in a coordinated way, ramp up the development of basic AI systems, their fundamental governing rules, and foster a secure, beneficial and fair environment for AI development.
In April of this year, 10 government departments jointly issued a guideline that put forward detailed issues which should be addressed, such as the selection criteria for training data, the rationality of algorithm, AI model and system design, and measures to prevent bias, discrimination and algorithmic exploitation, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
From the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the “April guideline”, and now the pilot program, China has been moving from words to deeds. In the absence of a set of universally accepted rules for AI governance, China’s push to implement AI ethics is not only an internal necessity for the country’s sustainable development and the broad public interest, but also an important contribution to global AI governance, offering the world a Chinese solution that balances technological innovation vitality with ethical safety.
