China is not the ground of AI’s invention, but it is deeply affected. Positively adapting and making use of it, while regulating it to fit into cultural norms, is China’s attitude toward AI.

Due to AI’s usefulness, both individuals and companies are trying to adapt to it. When I search on baidu.com, China’s main search engine, I find only articles discussing the benefits, not risks, of AI. Students use AI as an intelligent article-searching engine, a code generator, and a teacher to explain concepts. After websites like Baidu saw the advantage of an AI assistant on Google, they took similar efforts and developed their own, which organizes search results into a short paragraph. Companies also use AI for assisting with work generation.

China wants to win the international AI competition. As the government has claimed, China will be actively achieving the goal of leading the international development of AI. The government learned from the US for AI development support and regulations, and supported leading companies in developing AI. The company leaders predicted a positive trend of China’s AI development. China wishes to gain a major position in international development, and realizes that AI will support the country’s rule and sustainable development. As an economics professor said: “Autocratic governments would like to be able to predict the whereabouts, thoughts, and behaviors of citizens. And AI is fundamentally a technology for prediction.”

Though positive about adopting the technology, the Chinese government realizes there are concerns and has made regulations.

A main ideology in the Chinese Communist Party’s ruling is spreading the “right value” and make sure that people do not think otherwise. Therefore, the government closely monitors the internet to suppress “misleading opinions.” However, the development of AI’s recommendation algorithm presented a challenge to Internet control. For instance, before 2017, the Jinri Toutiao (“Today’s Headlines”) app had maintained a neutral position on politics and used a recommendation algorithm to provide content based on users’ interests. Then, president Xi claimed that official media outlets must “serve the party” and several articles appeared in newspapers to attack Toutiao. Soon its leader Zhang openly apologized and Toutiao closed its “Society Channel.” The government developed regulations of recommendation algorithms, stating that recommendation algorithm service providers must “actively transmit positive energy” and not “disrupt economic and social order.” Hence, the government responded to AI by checking certain uses to make sure the CCP’s voice dominates the Internet, and supporting the rest.

Another major regulation is about deep synthesis, which is done by AI’s deep learning algorithm. After this technology was developed, Chinese influencers started to make fun of it. An influencer named “Face Changing Bro” swapped a female celebrity’s face onto another character, leading to intense debate and criticism. To protect citizens’ privacy, the government set out rules regarding the watermark policy and how agreements need to be made on using other people’s information. Also, national symbols such as the national flag can only be used with authorization. Regulations are done for AI technology to be happily accepted.

In conclusion, the Chinese community has adapted to AI by positively learning from other countries, using it, and developing its own versions, while making regulations to maintain cultural norms and rules.

Sources:

https://carnegieendowment.org/2024/02/27/tracing-roots-of-china-s-ai-regulations-pub-91815

https://www.csis.org/analysis/choking-chinas-access-future-ai

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/03/why-china-has-an-edge-on-artificial-intelligence/