: China Is Betting Big on Artificial Intelligence—Even as It Cracks Down on ChatGPT #WorldNEWS Given that China already bans Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of foreign news websites (including

China Is Betting Big on Artificial Intelligence—Even as It Cracks Down on ChatGPT #WorldNEWS
Given that China already bans Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of foreign news websites (including time. com) via its Great Firewall, it was only a matter of time before its censors also targeted ChatGPT—the sensational artificial intelligence (AI) application that provides coherent, essay-like responses to virtually any query.
In fact, ChatGPT parent company OpenAI’s decision not to launch in China—Chinese and even Hong Kong phone numbers aren’t permitted to sign up—appears to preempt that very fact, with the San Francisco-based firm telling Reuters that “conditions in certain countries make it difficult or impossible” to operate.

Read More: Why China, Russia’s Biggest Backer, Now Says It Wants to Broker Peace in Ukraine
Nevertheless, canny Chinese netizens have found numerous workarounds to access the revolutionary service, such as using virtual private networks and an overseas friend’s phone number; purchasing logins via online marketplace Taobao; or simply taking advantage of a variety of proxy bots embedded in ubiquitous messaging service WeChat. Chinese social media was so abuzz with ChatGPT content this month that one AI-generated fake government notice rescinding traffic regulations sparked bedlam and a police investigation in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Unsurprisingly, China’s government has now stepped in with explicit bans on WeChat hosting proxy ChatGPT services, while a strident frontpage op-ed on the perils of investing in AI-related firms (and cited ChatGPT), which published earlier this month in the state-owed Securities Times newspaper, was linked to a fall in Chinese tech stocks.
Many were left wondering whether it was ChatGPT specifically that had thrown the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) into high dudgeon—or AI-powered content services more broadly. After all, China has almost a dozen pilot ChatGPT-like projects in the works, including by Jack Ma’s Alibaba and Beijing-based Internet company Baidu. (The latter is due to launch its own AI-powered language tool “Ernie Bot” in March and is already lining up partnerships with everything from media companies to kung fu’s Shaolin Temple). “We are obviously excited about ChatGPT and AIGC
,” Baidu CEO Robin Li told an earnings call this week. “It represents a mega trend that could change a lot of things. ”
It seems clear that China is still betting big on AI—just only those forms under its complete control. A Feb. 13 report by the CCP mouthpiece Global Times on the unveiling of a Beijing government white paper on AI development cited ChatGPT as exactly the kind of technology in its sights.