The frenzy over content creation using artificial intelligence tools doesn’t excite Internet censors in China. According to collect Ars Technicathe Asian giant’s Cyberspace Administration has issued a series of regulations that prohibits the use of AI for the creation of images, text, video or audio. Unless they meet one condition: that include marks that identify them —a watermark, for example.
While China recognizes that artificial intelligence is key to the country’s future economic growth, the authorities want to ensure that it is not used for tasks they deem inappropriate. And any platform that offers tools to create “synthetic” content—similar to what we see in the West with Dall-E, ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, etc.—will have to prove to the Chinese government that they abide by the rules.
“Services that provide features such as intelligent dialogue, synthesized human voice, human face generation, and immersive realistic scenes that generate or significantly change information content will be prominently marked to avoid public confusion or misidentification,” they said. Asian authorities. In addition, as expected, the brands that identify the content created with artificial intelligence cannot be deleted or edited.
China doesn’t like AI-generated content
The reasons behind this new regulation from China are not too surprising. After all, it is well known that the authorities do not allow citizens to freely access the web, and they exercise tight control over online activity. Although the work of the censors is not limited to that. The media, TV series and even movies are also modified under the excuse of maintaining social peace. And in the case of content generated with artificial intelligence, the justification is the same.
“In recent years, deep synthesis technology has developed rapidly. While meeting user needs and improving user experience, it has also been used by some unscrupulous people to produce, copy, publish, and spread illegal and harmful information. , to slander and belittle the reputation and honor of others, and to falsify the identity of others.The commission of fraud, etc., affects the order of communications and social order, injures the legitimate rights and interests of people and endangers national security and social stability”.
Cyberspace Administration of China.
China’s new regulation on content generated with artificial intelligence will come into force next January 10, 2023. It is worth mentioning that the authorities will not only maintain strict control over companies that offer AI tools, but also over their users.
Once the regulation is active, people who want to use services equivalent to Dall-E or ChatGPT they will have to register using real name accounts. In this way, the Chinese government will be able to track all of their actions and take action if they consider that they are committing a crime.
More control over the AI
Of course, it is not the first time that China has targeted artificial intelligence tools. In 2019, censors at the Cyberspace Administration banned the publication and distribution of “fake news” created using virtual reality and AI. At that time, regulators they had set their sights Over the deepfakes.
The regulation had come into force after the explosion in popularity of apps that allowed images to be modified in a matter of seconds. One of the most resonant cases was that of ZAO, a mobile application that allowed users to place their faces on the faces of celebrities or actors in fragments of Hollywood series and movies.
By then, China had ensured that the deepfakes endangered national security and disturbed stability and social order. The same script for different cases, clearly.
Beyond now focusing on the use of artificial intelligence for content creation, the Chinese position is far from surprising. Let’s not forget that, over the past year, Xi Jinping has not hesitated to torpedo his own country’s major tech companies.