China’s government might have some lofty ambitions for AI, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to let the tech run roughshod over the country.
According to Nikkei Asia, the People’s Republic has recently begun tightening regulations around AI-generated misinformation, as part of what it’s calling the “Clean Up the Internet: Rectifying the Abuse of AI Technology” campaign.
Like in other countries unleashing AI, China has been plagued by a rise in AI-generated fake news, particularly in the wake of natural disasters. As Nikkei reports, authorities have been making examples out of a number of misinformation peddlers, including a person who shared AI-generated images of a baby covered in debris following an earthquake, and a 28-year old man who faked his daughter’s kidnapping.
The regulation on misinformation is one of many provisions included in the campaign. Also forbidden: using AI to create and spread rumors, generate pornographic or violent images, impersonate others, manipulate web traffic or conduct “online trolling,” or abuse minors.
Taken together, the rules read like a shopping list of badly needed regulations in the US, where AI-generated misinformation and harmful images are nearly endemic across all social media, and where minors in particular have proven especially vulnerable to harms caused by AI models.
The Chinese government has previously cracked down on unlabeled AI-generated content, requiring all synthetic data to be explicitly identified as such.
China joins governments like the European Union in addressing the social consequences of AI by applying a comprehensive set of rules directly to tech companies. By doing so, authorities shift the burden of responsibility from the consumers of AI to the businesses creating it — an approach that’s sorely needed in other parts of the world.
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