China’s Xi Jinping launches new AI alliance: What is it? - Al Jazeera

Xi Jinping's latest gambit is the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), a 29-nation coalition unveiled with all the fanfare of a state banquet. 'Ensure no country dominates the technology,' Xi intoned — as if the Great Firewall and the Social Credit System weren't already a pretty clear bid for dominance, just with Chinese characteristics. The acronym WAICO is either a clever branding exercise or an accidental self-own, because 'wacko' is precisely the word for expecting 29 squabbling nations to cooperate on the very technology that lets them spy on each other. The 'principle of openness' we savaged last week has now grown into a full-blown committee. Because nothing says 'open' like a government-sponsored club with China setting the agenda.

Let's not pretend this is about altruism. WAICO is Beijing's answer to the US-led 'democratic AI' initiatives, except this version comes with built-in censorship and zero accountability to anyone outside the Politburo. Xi's call for 'cooperation' is the diplomatic equivalent of a velvet smile: lovely to look at, but try to question the terms and see how quickly the silk turns to iron. The article even notes this is launched at WAIC — the same conference where Xi talked about 'open source' while his state monitors every keystroke.

What's genuinely dark here is the speed: from a speech at WAIC to a fully formed international organization in what appears to be weeks. That's not cooperation; that's mobilisation. The US is bogged down in its own regulatory ping-pong — sorry, 'policy debates' — while China is shaping the global narrative. WAICO may be a talking shop for now, but its real purpose is to frame AI governance around Beijing's terms: surveillance-friendly, state-centric, and unaccountable. The West better get its act together before WAICO becomes the only show in town, because at this rate, the future of AI will be decided by a committee that doesn't even allow private voting.