FREEDOM ON THE NET 2023 The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots produced by China-based companies have refused to engage with user prompts on sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square. launched such products. The Chinese government has sought to regulate training data directly: Chinese consumerfacing generative AI products, like Baidu’s ERNIE Bot and Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen, are required to implement stringent content controls and ensure the “truth, accuracy, objectivity, and diversity” of training data, as defined by the CCP. Indeed, chatbots produced by China-based companies have refused to engage with user prompts on sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square and have parroted CCP claims about Taiwan. Emerging state attempts to control chatbots mirror previous efforts to restrict new social media platforms, with the world’s most technically sophisticated authoritarian governments leading the charge. As generative AI-based tools become more accessible and widely used, a growing number of governments will focus on ensuring that they reinforce rather than challenge existing information controls. Ordering platforms to use AI for censorship In at least 22 countries, social media companies were required—either explicitly or indirectly through the imposition of tight deadlines for the removal of banned material—to use automated systems for content moderation. While such systems are used by social media platforms around the world, the laws in many countries prohibit forms of political, social, and religious speech that should be protected under international human rights standards. By obliging platforms to use machine learning to comply with censorship rules, governments are effectively forcing them to detect and remove banned speech more efficiently. This use of AI also masks the role of the state in censorship and may ease the so-called digital dictator’s dilemma, in which undemocratic leaders must weigh the benefits of imposing online controls against the costs of public anger at such restrictions. Students in Kolkata hosted a film screening in January 2023 for a documentary about Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. Indian authorities had previously ordered YouTube and Twitter to block the documentary from being viewed within the country. (Dipayan Bose/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) 14 @freedomonthenet #FreedomOnTheNet