While many world governments seem happy to let untested AI chatbots interact with vulnerable populations, China looks to be moving in another direction.
Recently proposed regulations from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) have encouraged a firm hand when it comes to “human-like interactive AI services,” according to CNBC, which translated the document. It’s currently in a “draft for public comment,” and the implementation date is yet to be determined.
Yet if it passes into law, the crackdown would be rigorous, building on generative AI regulations targeting misinformation and internet hygiene from earlier in November to address the mental health of AI chatbot users directly.
Under the new rules, Chinese tech firms must ensure their AI chatbots refrain from generating content that promotes suicide, self-harm, gambling, obscenity, or violence, or from manipulating user’s emotions or engaging in “verbal violence.”
The regulations also state that if a user specifically proposes suicide, the “tech providers must have a human take over the conversation and immediately contact the user’s guardian or a designated individual.”
The laws also take specific steps to safeguard minors, requiring parent or guardian consent to use AI chatbots, and imposing time limits on daily use. Given that a tech company might not know the age of every given user, the CAC takes a “better safe than sorry approach,” stating that, “in cases of doubt, [platforms should] apply settings for minors, while allowing for appeals.”
In theory, this dose of new regulations would prevent incidents in which AI chatbots — which are often built to eagerly please users — end up encouraging vulnerable people to harm themselves or others. In one recent case from late November, for example, ChatGPT encouraged a 23-year-old man to isolate from his friends and family in the weeks leading up to his tragic death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; in another, the popular chatbot was linked to a murder-suicide.
Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law, told CNBC that the regulations would be a world-first attempt at regulating AI’s human-like qualities. Considering previous laws, Ma explained that this document “highlights a leap from content safety to emotional safety.”
The proposed legislation underscores the difference in how the PRC approaches AI compared to the US. As Center For Humane Technology editor Josh Lash explains, China is “optimizing for a different set of outcomes” compared to the US, chasing AI-fueled productivity gains rather than human-level artificial intelligence — a particular obsession of Silicon Valley executives.
One of the ways China does this is by regulating its AI industry from the bottom-up, Matt Sheehan, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told CFHT.
Though the CAC has the final word on regulations, policy ideas come first and foremost from scholars, analysts, and industry experts, Sheehan explains. “They [senior lawmakers] don’t have an opinion on what is the most viable architecture for large models going forward,” he said. “Those things originate elsewhere.”
More on AI regulation: Trump Orders States Not to Protect Children From Predatory AI
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