A new chatbot was launched by the Chinese search engine company, Baidu. However, this Chinese chatbot is already towing the party-line by deflecting sensitive questions. It seems like an artificial intelligence (AI) that should know a lot, in fact, knows very little about political subjects in China. Although Baidu’s chatbot received a significant number of user enquiries within its first 24 hours of operation, it dodged all sensitive questions by linking to official profiles or claiming it doesn’t know the answer yet. The skittish Chinese chatbot has learned to avoid discussing censored topics such as the abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and the questionable behaviors and unofficial biographies of top Chinese political figures.
Baidu has not commented on the extent of censorship limitations or the technologies present for containment and enforcement. Instead, the company emphasizes that its chatbot is only a small part of Baidu’s suite of services. China’s regulations encourage companies to focus on business applications like surveillance, and not societal fact-checking. The Baidu-bot falls far short of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is forbidden in China. Although Baidu hopes their Chinese-party compliant AI will improve the company’s weak financial situation, it seems competition from other state-approved chatbots is already increasing.
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