Beijing must harness AI to boost China’s image on the ‘global stage’, party newspaper says
- Central Party School newspaper urges propaganda officials to use AI technology such as ChatGPT to ‘guide international discourse’
- Chinese media should strengthen scrutiny over content to compensate for shortcomings of ‘AI-generated content value defects’, article says
In the article in Study Times, bylined Li Chunyan, called for China’s propaganda officials to pay more attention to the output of applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and be more cautious about censoring the AI-generated content.
“Scientific understanding and better use of the technologies underpinning applications such as ChatGPT matters significantly to China’s comprehensive strength and discourse right on the global stage.”
China made AI a national priority in 2017, stating its ambition to become “the world’s premier artificial intelligence innovation centre” by 2030.
In 2019, at a meeting with Politburo members, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged political elites to “increase the sense of urgency and mission”, apply AI in news collection, production, distribution and feedback, “harness algorithms with [the party’s] mainstream values” and improve their ability to guide public opinion.
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How does China’s AI stack up against ChatGPT?
ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, has captured worldwide attention since it was launched in 2022 for its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains. Beijing acted quickly to catch up by pooling national resources and encouraging domestic technology firms to develop large language models (LLMs).
