SHANGHAI, July 26 -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday said the international community should place greater emphasis on the joint governance of artificial intelligence (AI), calling for the early formation of a global framework and rules that have broad consensus to guide the development and use of AI.

"China attaches great importance to global AI governance, and has been actively promoting multilateral and bilateral cooperation with a willingness to offer more Chinese solutions," Li said while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai.

Li said that the Chinese government proposes the creation of a global AI cooperation organization.

He said that rapid progress is being made in fields such as large language models, multimodal large models and embodied AI, propelling AI development toward greater efficiency and higher intelligence.

Acknowledging that AI has begun to empower various industries and enter households, emerging as a new engine for economic growth, Li said the risks and challenges posed by AI have sparked widespread concern.

There is an urgent need to foster further consensus on how to strike a balance between development and security, he noted.

No matter how technology transforms, it must remain a tool to be harnessed and controlled by humans, Li said, adding that AI should become an international public good that benefits humanity.

Li urged more efforts to ensure universal access to AI so that more countries and groups will benefit from it. "China is willing to share its AI development experience and technological products to help countries around the world -- especially those in the Global South -- to strengthen their capacity building."

He suggested greater cooperation on innovation to achieve more groundbreaking results. He said that China stands ready to undertake joint technical research with other countries, and will be more open in sharing open-source technology and products.

More than 1,000 officials and representatives of industries, universities and research institutes from China and abroad attended the opening ceremony.

An action plan for global AI governance was issued at the conference.