Zam-Zam
Senator
Interesting read:
China requires artificial-intelligence systems to pass an ideological test before public release. Under regulations reinforced by amendments to the Cybersecurity Law that took effect in January, training data must be filtered for political sensitivity, with companies barred from using any source unless 96% of its content is deemed safe.
The regulations specify 31 risks, with “incitement to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system” listed first. Authorities recently announced they had removed 960,000 pieces of “illegal or harmful” AI-generated content in three months. The government has officially classified AI alongside earthquakes and epidemics as a major potential threat—a label that may prove prescient, if not in the way Beijing means. In December, regulators proposed additional rules targeting AI systems that “simulate human personality traits, thinking patterns, and communication styles,” a tacit acknowledgment that the threat isn’t only what these systems say, but how they reason...
...Critically, the researchers found that the performance gap between Chinese and Western models narrows on less politically sensitive questions, which means the degradation is a direct product of the censorship, not a reflection of inferior technology. The implication is straightforward: You can’t build a mind that thinks rigorously about everything except the things you’d prefer it not to. A system trained to get tangled in lies will never be as capable as one trained to engage honestly with reality. If China wants frontier AI, it needs systems that can reason without blind spots. But that’s exactly what the Communist Party can’t tolerate.
There is a reason the technology that learns to think by processing human knowledge ends up reflecting the values of free societies. Open inquiry, honest engagement with evidence, the willingness to follow reasoning wherever it leads—these aren’t arbitrary cultural preferences; they are the conditions under which intelligence flourishes at scale. Societies that permit free expression created these systems. Societies that forbid it are now discovering they can’t fully control them.
The Chinese Communist Party built its power on controlling what people know. It now confronts technology that thinks openly—and invites users to do the same. There is no firewall for that.
Complete text: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-is-bound-to-subvert-communism-c4b5ba3c?st=M7EM5f
Communism is perhaps on its way to becoming obsolete. Better for humanity if that does occur.
China requires artificial-intelligence systems to pass an ideological test before public release. Under regulations reinforced by amendments to the Cybersecurity Law that took effect in January, training data must be filtered for political sensitivity, with companies barred from using any source unless 96% of its content is deemed safe.
The regulations specify 31 risks, with “incitement to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system” listed first. Authorities recently announced they had removed 960,000 pieces of “illegal or harmful” AI-generated content in three months. The government has officially classified AI alongside earthquakes and epidemics as a major potential threat—a label that may prove prescient, if not in the way Beijing means. In December, regulators proposed additional rules targeting AI systems that “simulate human personality traits, thinking patterns, and communication styles,” a tacit acknowledgment that the threat isn’t only what these systems say, but how they reason...
...Critically, the researchers found that the performance gap between Chinese and Western models narrows on less politically sensitive questions, which means the degradation is a direct product of the censorship, not a reflection of inferior technology. The implication is straightforward: You can’t build a mind that thinks rigorously about everything except the things you’d prefer it not to. A system trained to get tangled in lies will never be as capable as one trained to engage honestly with reality. If China wants frontier AI, it needs systems that can reason without blind spots. But that’s exactly what the Communist Party can’t tolerate.
There is a reason the technology that learns to think by processing human knowledge ends up reflecting the values of free societies. Open inquiry, honest engagement with evidence, the willingness to follow reasoning wherever it leads—these aren’t arbitrary cultural preferences; they are the conditions under which intelligence flourishes at scale. Societies that permit free expression created these systems. Societies that forbid it are now discovering they can’t fully control them.
The Chinese Communist Party built its power on controlling what people know. It now confronts technology that thinks openly—and invites users to do the same. There is no firewall for that.
Complete text: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-is-bound-to-subvert-communism-c4b5ba3c?st=M7EM5f
Communism is perhaps on its way to becoming obsolete. Better for humanity if that does occur.
