The Chinese Communist Party, which rules the country, stressed the risks posed by advances in artificial intelligence and called for stronger national security measures.
The statement, issued after a meeting led by the party leader and country’s president, Xi Jinping, left on the table the tension between the government’s determination to take the lead in cutting-edge technology and concerns about possible political and social damage. derived from that technology.
The statement followed a warning the previous day from scientists and technology industry leaders, including senior executives at Microsoft and Google, about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to humanity.
The meeting in Beijing addressed the need to make dedicated efforts to safeguard political security and improve internet data security governance and artificial intelligence.
Xi, who is the head of state, top army commander and chairman of the National Security Commission, called at the meeting to keep a close eye on the complicated and challenging circumstances facing national security.
China already devotes enormous resources to suppressing any apparent political threat to party rule, and spending on police and security personnel exceeds the budget for the army.
China has tightened controls over its technology sector in an effort to reassert party control, but like other countries it is having trouble regulating AI, a rapidly advancing technology.
Concerns about AI systems outpacing human intelligence and getting out of hand have intensified with the rise of a new generation of AI chatbots, like ChatGPT.
Among the hundreds of prominent people who signed the statement, posted on the Center for AI Security website, were Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and Geoffrey Hinton, a programmer known as the father of AI. artificial intelligence.
More than 1,000 researchers and technologists, including Elon Musk, who is visiting China, had signed a much longer letter this year calling for a six-month moratorium on artificial intelligence development.
The letter pointed out that artificial intelligence poses profound risks to society and humanity and some people involved in the matter have proposed a United Nations treaty to regulate this technology.
Although China already warned in 2018 about the need to regulate these systems, it has financed a great expansion of the field as part of its efforts to become a technological leader.
Lack of privacy protections and tight party control of the legal system have also led to near-widespread use of facial, voice, and even gait recognition technologies to identify and detain people deemed dangerous, especially dissidents. politicians and religious minorities, particularly Muslims.
The potential risks of artificial intelligence stem from its ability to control robotic autonomous weaponry, financial tools, and computers that run power grids, transportation systems, and other key infrastructure.