A staff member trains a robot at a textile workshop in Cixi, Zhejiang province, on Sept 3.XU YU/XINHUA

　　The BRICS is emerging as a significant force in development and governance of artificial intelligence globally, experts say, highlighting its crucial role in championing the Global South's interests and bridging the digital divide.

　　BRICS has evolved into a crucial mechanism for Global South nations to pursue shared development. With the rise of AI, the bloc has elevated technology governance as a key pillar of its agenda.

　　BRICS members and the broader Global South regard AI as both an unprecedented opportunity and a strategic imperative. Jiang Tianjiao, a research fellow at the Center for Global AI Innovative Governance in Shanghai, said that these countries see developing AI as a way of increasing productivity, improving public services and narrowing the digital divide, but also as an essential path to reduce dependence on developed countries for technology, computing power and rules.

　　A landmark move came at last year's BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the bloc issued its first leadership-level consensus document on global AI governance, The BRICS Leaders' Statement on the Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence. It underscored digital sovereignty and the right to development as central to global AI governance.

　　The BRICS consensus serves as a crucial corrective to the global AI governance system, experts said.

　　Jiang Qingquan, deputy director of the BRICS Economic Research Center at Xiamen University of Technology, said global AI governance discussions have often fixated on security risks, overlooking the more fundamental issue of the development gap.