- Chinese regulators said on Thursday they have finalized first-of-its-kind rules governing generative artificial intelligence as it looks to ramp up oversight of the fast-growing technology.
- The powerful China Cyberspace Administration (CAC) said it worked with several other regulators to come up with the new regulation, which will take effect on August 15.
- Generative AI is a rapidly growing area of technology where AI services are capable of creating content such as text or images.
Artificial intelligence in China
Ying Tang | Norphoto | Getty Images
Chinese regulators on Thursday finalized first-of-its-kind rules governing generative artificial intelligence as the country looks to ramp up oversight of the fast-growing technology.
The powerful China Cyberspace Administration (CAC) said it worked with several other regulators to come up with the new regulation, which will take effect on August 15.
Generative AI is a rapidly growing area of technology where AI services are capable of creating content such as text or images. ChatGPT, developed by the US company OpenAI, is the most well-known example and allows users to prompt a chatbot and receive responses to queries.
These services are trained on huge amounts of data. However, ChatGPT’s success has spawned a wave of competing services, causing global regulators to worry about potential risks around the technology.
Chinese tech giants have jumped on the bandwagon, announcing plans and launching their own generative AI services.
But China, which tightly controls the domestic internet through censorship and regulation, is watching the development of artificial intelligence closely. Chinese regulators are concerned about the potential for these services to generate content that may contradict Beijing’s views or ideology.
This is partly why Chinese tech companies are cautious about launching ChatGPT-like services. Instead of full services that are widely available to the public, Chinese companies have focused their technology on enterprise and narrow uses.
For example, this month Alibaba launched an AI tool that can generate images from prompts called Tongyi Wanxiang, but it’s only available to enterprise customers for beta testing.
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