Global Courant 2023-04-13 06:02:10
China will require all artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots used locally to censor their content, making it in line with the ruling Communist Party’s core socialist values.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s internet watchdog, began a month on Tuesday (April 11) public consultation for a set of new rules that will prohibit AI chat apps from spreading fake information or inflammatory material that could disrupt social order.
Some commentators said political censorship will slow down the development of Chinese AI chatbots. Chinese writers said there is still a long way to go before Chinese chatbots can catch up with Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has already proven strong in writing and math.
Since ChatGPT debuted last November, many Chinese companies have announced their plans to launch their own rival chatbots in 2023.
On April 11, Alibaba launched its ChatGPT-style service called Tongyi Qianwen, which literally means “searching for the truth by asking a thousand questions”.
Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang said in a press briefing on the same day that all of the company’s products will be connected to Tongyi Qianwen and completely renewed.
“It is worth revamping all our segments, applications, software and services with the support of our AI-generated content,” said Zhang.
“Such reforms will change the way people produce, work and live,” he added. “In the AI era, internet companies and companies from different industries are all on the same starting line.”
Prior to this, on March 16, Baidu unveiled Ernie Bot, China’s first AI chatbot.
Baidu’s co-founder and Chief Executive Robin Li said at the time that Ernie Bot has flaws and lags behind ChatGPT-4, which he noted has already set a very high standard in logical reasoning and image analysis. Li said he hopes Ernie Bot will be used to serve all business sectors.
Currently, people in mainland China cannot subscribe directly to the ChatGPT service, but must use foreign phone numbers and credit cards to register through virtual private networks (VPNs) to gain access.
“AI-generated content must reflect the core values of socialism and must not contain material that promotes the subversion of state power, the overthrow of the socialist system, incitement, the subversion of national unity, terrorism or extremism,” the CAC said in a statement. a public consultation document on Tuesday.
Ernie Bot. Image: Alex Santafe/The China Project/Twitter
It says AI-generated content must not promote ethnic hatred and discrimination or violence and must not contain false information, obscenity, pornography or any other content that could disrupt the economic and social order.
It says AI chatbot vendors are required to submit security assessment reports to the government before launching their services. It says they are responsible for any violations of the rules.
Political commentator Shi Shan say in his YouTube channel that political censorship will stifle the growth of China’s AI chatbots, which are needed to censor all politically sensitive information. He says that without complete information, Chinese chatbots cannot provide the smartest answers.
He also says it’s normal for AI chatbots to provide false information, as they’re programmed to provide logical answers but not verify the sources of that information. He says Chinese chatbots lose their creativity when they have limited resources.
However, Chinese columnists are not too concerned about political censorship, which has been practiced in news media and online platforms for decades. They care more about the intelligence level of Chinese chatbots.
An IT writer from Zhejiang say ChatGPT-4 is much more advanced than Ernie Bot in many ways, including logical reasoning, math, writing, and common sense – although Ernie Bot can have an advantage in understanding Chinese poems and conversation.
A columnist from Henan say ChatGPT-4 is much smarter than Ernie Bot as it can provide logical and correct answers to most questions. For example, when ChatGPT-4 was asked to use five units to reach six in a math equation, ChatGPT-4 cleverly replied “(1+1)x(1+1+1)=6.” Ernie Bot failed the simplistic math problem.
Another writer compared ChatGPT with an adult and Ernie Bot with an elementary school student. He says he hopes Chinese AI chatbots will catch up one day.
Read: Fearing ChatGPT is ‘opium’, China is building its own country
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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