Can Xi Jinping control AI without crushing it?
Artificial intelligence will test the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to shape innovation to suit its purposes
IN THE PAST month or so, China’s tech giants have been showing off. Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei and SenseTime have all flaunted their artificial-intelligence (AI) models, which can power products and applications such as image generators, voice assistants and search engines. Some have introduced AI-powered chatbots similar to ChatGPT, the human-like conversationalist developed in America that has dazzled users. The new offerings have names such as Ernie Bot (Baidu), SenseChat (SenseTime) and Tongyi Qianwen (Alibaba). The latter roughly translates as “truth from a thousand questions”. But in China the Communist Party defines the truth.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Welcome to ChatCCP”
From the April 22nd 2023 edition
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