July 9, 2024, may be remembered as a day of humiliation for China’s artificial intelligence community. On that day, US start-up OpenAI, the global leader in AI model development, blocked developers in China – including Hong Kong and Macau – from using its GPT models. In contrast, developers from countries ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe were given access, reflecting OpenAI’s unspoken belief that its valuable models must be safeguarded against misuse by China, along with Iran, Russia and...