Plugged in, not locked in: middle powers navigate US-China AI rivalry

Middle powers navigating the US-China competition in artificial intelligence (AI) favour flexible partnerships over closed alliances, demanding a “plugged in, not locked in” approach, an AI governance panel heard on Saturday.Alejandro Reyes, adjunct professor in the department of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said that middle powers were exercising agency in the AI era, selectively partnering with both Beijing and Washington “issue by issue” rather than aligning with a single camp.“Countries in the middle do not want to be locked in; they want to plug in,” Reyes told a forum in Shenzhen co-hosted by the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute and the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW) at HKU.