As AI development gathers speed, governments and industry leaders say guardrails are needed to protect the public from the fast-moving tech
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenVincent ChowPublished: 7:00pm, 13 Apr 2026Governments, industry and the public are in “common ignorance” about the present and future of artificial intelligence, making both international collaboration and coordination between industry and policymakers necessary, experts have said.In a panel discussion at the inaugural Hong Kong Global AI Conference at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Saturday, Alibaba Group Holding policy lead Fu Hongyu said that China was now at the front lines of global efforts to introduce guardrails surrounding the fast-changing technology.
“We are in a dilemma that can be called common ignorance,” he said. “We do not know what is going on and where the technology is going.”
With Chinese models widely considered to be around three to six months behind their US counterparts, Beijing’s position on AI governance had always been the need to balance AI development and safety, said Fu, director of AI governance at Alibaba’s research institute, AliResearch. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
