Here’s a selection of articles that take a look at what Beijing is saying
Voice of America
China Unveils Proposed New Law Overseeing Artificial Intelligence Products
The draft law released Tuesday by the Cyberspace Administration of China says that content generated by future AI products must reflect the country’s “core socialist values” and not encourage subversion of state power.
The draft law also said AI content must not promote discrimination based on ethnicity, race and gender, and should not provide false information.
The proposed law is expected to take effect sometime this year. The regulations come as several China-based tech companies, including Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu have released a flurry of new so-called generative AI products which can mimic human speech and generate content such as images and texts. The innovative feature has surged in popularity since San Francisco-based OpenAI introduced ChatGPT last November.
Jurist
China to require pre-clearance of AI products
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) Tuesday released a draft law detailing new regulations for providers of artificial intelligence (AI) products. The new law will require these providers to report to the Ministry of Cyberspace affairs and ensure their product undergoes a security assessment before it can be released to the public.
Although all AI products developed in China will need to be assessed before public use, the law also outlined that the state supports the “independent innovation, popularisation and application” of AI products. The CAC “encourages use of safe and reliable [AI] software”, however, their new regulations state that such software must generate content that “reflects the core values of socialism.” It must also “not contain any content that subverts state power, [or] advocates for the overthrow of the socialist system.”
Among these new requirements, the CAC regulations set out articles protecting user information. Providers are now obliged to protect the user’s input and are not allowed to illegally retain any input information. The AI products are also banned from generating any discriminatory content based on the user’s race, country, gender and other characteristics. Furthermore, providers are required to create a suitable method of receiving and dealing with user complaints about their product.
These legal provisions follow a recent increase in use of AI chatbots and image generators such as ChatGPT, a widely used chatbot created by Open-AI in November 2022. Most recently, in March, Italy’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) banned ChatGPT, citing the lack of an age verification system for children users and unlawful collection of users’ personal data. Large Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba and SenseTime, revealed their newest AI models in recent weeks, which will likely be subject to the CAC’s new regulations.
https://www.jurist.org/news/2023/04/china-to-require-pre-clearance-of-ai-products/
Tech Crunch
Prohibition of AI that ‘subverts state power’ in China may chill its nascent industry
Chinese regulators have proposed restrictive rules around AI models like ChatGPT being built in the country, requiring user identification and security reviews, and prohibiting “any content that subverts state power, advocates the overthrow of the socialist system, incites splitting the country or undermines national unity.”
The rules come hot on the heels of Chinese tech companies rolling out their versions of general purpose large language models, versatile AI systems that can converse in natural language and carry out a surprising number of tasks. While the reception of SenseTime, Baidu, and Alibaba’s models over the last month suggests they’re somewhat behind the likes of GPT-4, it’s clear the industry there is equally dedicated to developing these capabilities.
Unfortunately, shortly after the debut of Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen model, one of the country’s tech regulators, the Cyberspace Administration of China, proposed restrictions that may smother relevant innovations — and the Chinese AI industry’s ambitions along with them
Prohibition of AI that ‘subverts state power’ in China may chill its nascent industry