The Chinese government is taking the rein of how AI (Artificial Intelligence) could and should be used in the country. They are setting some strict boundaries. Beijing has already demarcated a set of temporary rules that would come into effect on 15th August 2023.
Inclusions
All services that use generative AI would come under the purview of these regulations. For instance, different sorts of media like pictures, audio, text, and video.
Any content available and accessible to the people of China needs to adhere to these rules mandatorily. Moreover, there would be a licensing regime implemented for all service providers.
The regulatory authorities say that their objective is to “balance development and security” without limiting innovation harshly since their purpose is to “encourage innovative development of generative AI,” as well.
Rules set by China
Defined as “Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services”, the rules shall serve the below-mentioned purposes:
- Standardizing AI applications
- Promote a “healthy development” of AI
- Protection of national security
- Encourage innovations but with proper judiciousness
- Obeying the core values of socialism
- Safeguarding the rights and interests of the citizens of China
- Prevent ethnic hatred, discrimination, obscenity, false information, and violence
- Respective social ethics and morality
AI-generated content must comply with these rules strictly. These include the prohibition on the promotion of racism, terrorism, pornography, and everything else that poses a national security threat.
If there is any service or algorithm that has the potential to influence public opinion should be registered with authorities. This is done to ensure complete compliance. Later on, an administrative license shall be issued in agreement with Chinese laws.
Responsibility
The responsibility of identifying and immediately halting any prohibited content generated by the algorithms is on the service providers. If anything like this happens, the service providers are obligated to report to authorities.
The service providers need to implement an anti-addiction system as well. It should be specifically created for underage users to prevent children from spending money and time in excess on video games.
Exceptions
These restrictions apply to services with the ability to influence public opinion. Services that are used for industrial or internal corporate purposes do not need to follow the rules.
China intends to drive the innovation made by generative AI in a positive and healthy direction for “all industries and fields”. The country supports the development of all tools, software, hardware, and data source as long as they are “secure and trustworthy.”
It is yet to be decided what would be the consequences if any service provider fails to abide by the rules or in case of violations. It is to be noted that fines levied previously have been removed from the recent draft.
