China will impose a “safety inspection” on artificial intelligence tools, amid a frenzy in the country of local internet giants to design ChatGPT-like tools.
The prowess of the American chatbot ChatGPT, launched in November and able to formulate detailed answers in a few seconds on a wide range of subjects, is being followed with interest in China.
The interface is not accessible in the country, but ChatGPT is the subject of countless articles and discussions on social networks, and local tech giants are vying to design equivalent tools in China.
The search engine Baidu was one of the first Chinese groups to position itself in this niche, joined by the champion of the internet and video games Tencent or even Alibaba, a pioneer in e-commerce.
In full euphoria vis-à-vis so-called generative artificial intelligence, China wishes to regulate this technology.
Before being made available, products powered by generative artificial intelligence will have to “seek security inspection”, according to draft regulations released by China’s Cyberspace Administration on Tuesday.
The regulator, which submits its text for public comment before adoption, does not specify when the regulations will come into force.
Content generated by artificial intelligence must “reflect fundamental socialist values and must not contain [d’éléments relatifs] to the subversion of state power”, specifies the draft regulations.
It aims to ensure “the healthy development and standard application of generative artificial intelligence technology”, according to the internet regulator.
– Technology framework –
China aims to become the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, which will revolutionize a multitude of sectors including the automotive industry and medicine.
Baidu was the first in its country to announce that it is working on a local equivalent to ChatGPT.
Presented last month to the press, Ernie Bot, which works in Mandarin and is only aimed at the Chinese market, is currently only available in beta version.
E-commerce giant Alibaba unveiled its own on Tuesday, “Tongyi Qianwen” (all-knowing machine).
In the race for artificial intelligence, the main difficulty in China for developers is to offer a high-performance conversational robot that does not deviate from the very strict framework permitted in terms of content.
China closely monitors its internet and media. Every day, an army of censors erase content that portrays state policy in a bad light or is likely to create unrest.
Social networks are subject to increased control.
China, at the forefront of supervising new technologies, had already asked internet giants last year to reveal their algorithms.
At the heart of the digital economy, algorithms serve as the brains of many applications and services on the internet and are generally a well-kept secret.