{"id":58453,"date":"2023-04-17T06:49:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=58453"},"modified":"2023-04-17T06:49:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:49:28","slug":"the-perils-of-ai-artificial-intelligence-in-the-prc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=58453","title":{"rendered":"The perils of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the PRC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at Language Log, for the last couple months, we've been having long, intense discussions about ChatGPT and other AI chatbots and LLM (Large Language Model) applications.\u00a0 Now, it seems that the battle over such AI programs has reached the level of ideological warfare.<\/p>\r\n

\"America, China and a Crisis of Trust<\/a>\"<\/p>\r\n

Opinion | The New York Times (4\/14\/23)<\/p>\r\n

Indeed, a story making the rounds in Beijing is that many Chinese have begun using ChatGPT to do their\u00a0ideology homework for the local Communist Party cell, so they don\u2019t have to waste time on it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I have some evidence that this might well be true.\u00a0 Already about half-a-dozen years ago, my M.A. students from the PRC whose parents were CCP members told me that the government required daily interaction with the propaganda installed on their phones — upon pain of being demoted or dismissed.\u00a0 They had to read a specified amount of Xi-speak and answer questions about the content.\u00a0 This demanded a serious investment of time (hours).\u00a0 It was considered to be especially onerous for those CCP members whose day jobs (doctors, bureaucrats, stock brokers, etc., etc.) already demanded a very full work schedule in the office.\u00a0 So many, if not most of them, hired various human and electronic services to meet the obligations.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

China state-run media China Daily<\/a><\/i> claimed that ChatGPT \"could provide a helping hand to the U.S. government in its spread of disinformation and its manipulation of global narratives for its own geopolitical interests.\" The Chinese government instructed Chinese tech companies not to offer access to ChatGPT services on their platforms.<\/p>\r\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

The Chinese government blocks its citizens' access to vast amounts of information and technology available on the internet.\u00a0 One can readily understand why such a totalitarian government would wish to forbid the free circulation of unfettered ChatGPT and other LLM-based bots:\u00a0 they are garrulous, say what they wish, and are not programmed to self-censor, which is a sine qua non for \"legal\" participation on the internet behind the Great Firewall.<\/p>\r\n

Remember the Bamboo Curtain<\/a>?\u00a0 It's still with us, just technologically transformed into the Great Firewall.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n