Zhuang Rongwen, director at the Cyberspace Administration of China, wants to ensure chat bot technology is ‘reliable and controllable’.
Zhuang Rongwen, director at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the agency in charge of generative AI regulation, said on Monday that generative AI could affect every aspect of society and daily life, and that it was creating a new challenge for internet governance.
During the Nishan Dialogue on Digital Civilization conference, the head of CAC noted that Beijing is particularly concerned about the data used in generative AI, the opaque nature of large language models, and privacy.
The CAC has yet to issue any official permit or licence for any generative AI product in China’s market of 1 billion internet users, even as the country’s Big Tech firms, including search engine Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding, are rolling out ChatGPT-style services on a “trial” basis.
Zhuang’s agency has published a list of 41 generative AI algorithms which have been “registered”, a pre-screening step before being officially licensed.
The popularity of ChatGPT has put Beijing in a difficult position. On the one hand, China views AI as a technology of the future, but on the other hand, the government is trying to tame the technology so that “unwanted” information will not be generated.
In his speech, Zhuang said AI should be integrated into the real economy to help improve the operations of traditional industry sectors. He also called for more international cooperation on the research and development of AI, the cultivation of talent, and urged local enterprises, high schools and research facilities to join together for collaboration.
Source: SCMP
