The article also warns of the potential geopolitical implications of China's AI strategy. It suggests that China could control access to AI advancements within its borders and sell tools of control and surveillance to other regimes. This could lead to a global information war, with AI creating digital silos that prevent societies from cooperating in a shared future. The author argues that it is crucial to consider all the ways Beijing can profit from AI now before its machines are turned on the world.
Key takeaways:
- The Chinese Communist Party has been planning to dominate the creation, application, and dissemination of generative artificial intelligence since 2017. However, the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022 caught Beijing off guard, indicating that US companies were leading the AI race.
- Despite censorship requirements potentially slowing China's AI development, the country's leaders see technology as a key to economic recovery. Even if China doesn't win the AI race, there is still power and potential danger in it taking second place.
- China's vision for the future of AI is closed-sourced, tightly controlled, and available for export around the world. The country is feeding AI with information that encourages positive "social construction" and using it to fortify its power.
- China's tech giants are playing catch-up in the AI race, with companies like Baidu, Moonshot AI, and ByteDance developing their own chatbots. However, the race to the bottom and pressure to make money quickly may hinder China's progress in AI innovation.