BEIJING–After years of phenomenal growth, China’s security and surveillance industry is now concerned about the risks posed by hackers, advances in artificial intelligence, and pressure from rival governments, threatening its own sanctions against the United States and other outside parties. focus on reinforcing the vulnerability of
The recent Security China exhibition in Beijing puts renewed emphasis on self-reliance, fighting fraud and strengthening systems against hacking, and researchers warn that humanity faces common risks. Nevertheless, it shows how difficult it is to get Beijing and the United States to work together. from AI. The show comes days after China’s ruling Communist Party warned officials of the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
Looming into the four-day tournament is China’s biggest geopolitical rival, the United States. The US-developed AI chatbot ChatGPT has been a frequent topic of discussion, as has US efforts to block China’s access to cutting-edge technology.
“This new technology contains great potential dangers,” said Huang Weichen, director of the Public Security Research Center of Tsinghua University. He clicked through an AI-generated presentation featuring President Barack Obama in person to explain the risks of deceptive images and videos that can now be created digitally.
“The United States has a national security strategy for the 21st century. Russia has a national security strategy. Germany has a strategy. there is,” he said.
Chinese academics are working on an “early warning system” to identify and manage potentially disruptive technologies, Fan said, adding that emerging technologies could affect China’s national security. It is said that it is creating indicators and formulas to measure the impact.
Over the past decade, China’s AI technology has made rapid progress, partly facilitated by cooperation with US research institutes and high-tech companies. Like the United States, China’s leaders are concerned about advances in artificial intelligence.
But there are further challenges. In recent years, as geopolitical tensions have reached a fever pitch, Washington has moved to cut China’s access to American technology, encouraging Chinese tech companies to stand on their own feet.
His remarks at a conference chaired by Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month urged renewed attention to potential risks from new technologies.
“The complexity and seriousness of the national security issues facing our country have increased dramatically,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency read out the meeting. “We have to prepare for the worst extreme scenarios.”
Exhibition-goers said China needs to stand on its own by developing locally manufactured products while keeping an eye out for new developments from the West.
“Now is the age of AI. The future has arrived,” said Liu Caixia, director of China’s police research institute. “People in academia are terrified.”
“I’ve seen it in some science fiction blockbusters where there are only intelligent machines left in the world, and humans are kept like pets,” Liu said. “What attitude should I take?”
Liu’s answer was clear and consistent with China’s determination to lead in cutting-edge technology, pushing and introducing AI into new areas.
But it also reflects a contradiction between China’s technological ambitions and growing concerns about the potential social and political risks of such technologies. Chinese tech companies have been cautious with chatbots like ChatGPT, and strict censorship prohibits AI from generating politically sensitive content, for example.
But ChatGPT raises the following questions: Should China rush to adopt AI and potentially fall into its pitfalls, or should it be cautious and risk falling behind the US?
Across the Pacific, U.S. tech executives and policymakers are grappling with the same problem. A wave of US sanctions has targeted Chinese chip makers and AI companies to limit access to cutting-edge technology by the Chinese government. Politicians worry about China’s rise in this area.
As tensions between the United States and China reach a boiling point, Secretary of State Anthony Brinken visited Beijing this week to try to stabilize relations, saying Washington is not seeking to separate from China, but rather to “reduce risks and diversify.” ‘ only tried to assure the Chinese side that
Both sides declared the visit a success, but Beijing expressed dissatisfaction with US sanctions, and a senior Chinese foreign affairs official, Wang Yi, called on the US to “give up its suppression of China’s technological development.” .
Some experts believe that cooperation, not conflict, is needed to confront what is perceived as a threat to all of humanity. Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended a conference hosted by the Beijing Society for Artificial Intelligence to encourage cooperation between Chinese and US researchers to reduce AI risks.
“International cooperation is more risky than ever,” Altman said, noting that China is home to some of the world’s top AI researchers. “We have to manage risk together.”
Those concerns were echoed at a conference in China, where executives expressed concern about the potential use of AI-generated sounds and images for fraud, hacking and disinformation campaigns.
“The potential for fraud is very high,” said Li Congting, chief AI scientist at video surveillance maker Uniview. “Many people have already tried his ChatGPT. Everyone thinks its interaction ability is very good, as if there is a real human behind it.”
US scientists and technology industry leaders, including senior executives at Microsoft and Google, recently warned of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
Many Chinese researchers echoed these concerns. However, cooperation with the United States was hardly talked about at the Beijing Expo.
“Technology innovation has become the main battleground in international geopolitics,” said Gao Lei, a senior official at a state-owned enterprise controlled by China’s Ministry of Public Security. Gao said the US was “increasing its crackdown” on China’s high-tech industry and that it was “essential” to replace US technology with homegrown computer chips.
The two countries are grappling with AI concerns, but apparent differences in their approach to technology make cooperation difficult.
China has built one of the world’s most intrusive digital surveillance systems, covering streets and rural areas with cameras and tracking its citizens through chat apps and mobile phones.
The US government has sanctioned a number of Chinese tech companies for their involvement in Beijing’s crackdown on tech in the far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. In the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, digital technology has been used to flag ethnic minorities for arrest, often on false grounds.
Many of the companies that participated in the expo were sanctioned, including telecommunications giant Huawei, camera maker Hikvision and surveillance specialist Maya Pico. A Meiya Pico representative declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press, saying it was banned from speaking to foreign media altogether.
The use of police technology in the United States is constrained by civil society and legal challenges. However, many companies have nonetheless introduced questionable privacy-busting technologies such as facial recognition and predictive policing, fueling charges of hypocrisy and fueling suspicions within China that US sanctions are politically motivated. could not be prevented.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies continue to deploy technology in ways that Western lawmakers fear.
At the conference, one of China Mobile’s researchers discussed the drones the company is providing to the Hong Kong police. Researchers say these were used to monitor protesters during anti-government demonstrations in 2019. Advances in 5G communication technology will eliminate the need for police officers to operate drones in the field, allowing them to do so from the comfort of their offices.
“With the click of a mouse, drone footage from the scene can be sent to a computer,” said researcher Su Yu. “This increases efficiency.”
With tensions at an all-time high, experts say it is an open question whether the two countries can find ways to work together.
“How do the United States and China coexist with such radically different norms for the use of technology and society?” Mr Sachs says. “We have to find a way forward. Politically it won’t be easy.”
