There’s been lots of discussion lately about how Artificial Intelligence programs such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, Bing Chat, and numerous other programs to come will affect the Human Race.
Well, it seems the Government of The People’s Republic of China has been discussing this quite a lot lately too, and has formed a committee tasked with making sure these AI programs – called “Generative Pre-trained Transformers, or “GPTs” – are ultimately your friend… just like the Chinese Government is the World’s friend.
And, because every good bureaucratic initiative needs to start with some idealistic, lofty, objectives in order for it to be accepted by the People (and, so bureaucrats can keep their jobs indefinitely), here’s what the Committee has come up with:
“The content generated by generative artificial intelligence should reflect the core values of Socialism, and must not
- contain subversion of State power,
- overthrow of the Socialist system,
- incitement to split the country,
- undermine national unity,
- promote terrorism,
- extremism, and
- promote ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination,
- violence,
- obscene and pornographic information,
- false information, and
- content that may disrupt economic and social order.”
- “Notice of the Cyberspace Administration of China on Public Comments on the “Administrative Measures for Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Draft for Comment)”, April 11, 2023 Source: China Netcom
I’m sure the Chinese Government will have no problem enforcing this in China: After all it’s easy to do when you have a centrally-directed Socialist State ruled by a single party, backed by the World’s largest military, and armed with the most extensive electronic surveillance system on Earth.
However, it might be a problem for the Chinese Government to enforce this in other countries, especially in America… or, maybe not: Click on any of the links in the list to discover why.
Although, it might not be a problem in the United States at all: Democrats in the US Congress have been discussing AI quite a lot lately too, and one of them has introduced a bill to make sure you don’t use Artificial Intelligence in ways Uncle Sam doesn’t like.
The RESTRICT ACT, introduced by Democrat Senator Mark Warner on March 7th, 2023 as Senate bill S.686, would allow the United States Secretary of Commerce to evaluate nearly every technology, device, transaction, or communication related to:
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…and basically give the Federal Government the power to seize anything from any person, group, company, or country from any action which poses “any risk” to a person, property, or National Security of the United States.
BTW: “RESTRICT” means “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology”. Clever!
Finally, only about 20% of Americans say they trust the Federal Government to “do what is right”, down from 77% in 1965. How will we be able to trust the Federal Government to “do the right thing” when it comes to regulating, controlling, and even creating and using GPT software?
Perhaps we should ask the Federal Government’s Artificial Intelligence computer… just as soon as they get their government-approved computer codes programmed to ignore any information deemed a risk by the government, process only government-approved information from government-funded sources, and report that information only to government-approved people on government-approved social media. I’m sure once the government gets involves their Trust Rating will at least be 100%…or else! 
Or, it might be simpler for us to just remember the most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”
Thanks for Reading!
