MANY MINDEDAt Shanghai AI Summit, Calls to Widen Access Beyond Wealthy Nations
At the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Saturday, scholars and international figures argued that a widening digital divide could isolate emerging markets from the benefits of artificial intelligence. The remarks, reported on 18 July 2026, framed access to AI training, infrastructure and governance as a question of equity for the Global South rather than a purely technical one.
China is presenting an AI package aimed at the Global South, centered on training, infrastructure and a role in shaping global governance. Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, called for building international consensus and interoperability between different governance systems — the technical and political plumbing that lets systems from different countries work together. Nambaryn Enkhbayar, former president of Mongolia, argued against regulating AI at its earliest stages and said Mongolia is ready to develop the technology through cooperation, including with China.
The stakes for abundance are about who gets to use these tools. If AI capability and the compute behind it concentrate in a handful of rich countries, the productivity gains in health, education and knowledge concentrate there too. Broad access is a precondition for AI lowering costs everywhere rather than in a few places.
What to watch is whether the rhetoric turns into shared infrastructure and open tooling. This is a short summary of conference remarks, and stated intentions at a summit are not the same as delivered capacity — the follow-through is the real signal.
Source: SCMP Tech