China Races Ahead of US on AI Regulation

While American leaders fret that China might eventually overtake the U.S. in developing artificial intelligence, Beijing is already way ahead of Washington in enacting rules for the new technology. From a report: Chinese officials will close consultation Wednesday on a second round of generative AI regulation, building on a set of rules governing deepfakes agreed in 2022. The Biden administration is behind both allies and adversaries on AI guardrails. While officials in Washington talk about delivering user rights and urge CEOs to mitigate risks, Beijing and Brussels are actually delivering rights and mitigating risks. If China can be first on AI governance, it can project those standards and regulations globally, shaping lucrative and pliable markets. At the same time, Beijing's speedy regulation achieves three goals at home: Delivers tighter central government control of debate. Builds up hybrid corporate entities that are meshed with the Chinese Communist Party. Boosts trust in AI -- already among the highest levels globally -- which drives consumer uptake and spurs growth.

Whoa, slow down

[Dictator For Life]

Trailing an autocracy on rule creation is not necessarily a bad thing.

Re:

[Iamthecheese]

You mean the one where's he may have paid hush money over an act that wasn't a crime? The one where if it was a woman being extorted and paying out it would be the man getting arrested? Is that what you're calling a rape case? The only thing raped is your intellect.

Re:he wont

[Adambomb]

He's probably referring to the E. Jean Carroll case, but that's a civil suit not a criminal proceeding.

Re:

[will_die]

No it is a comment about things that came out in court trial about biden, not trump.

Re:

[Can'tNot]

Not necessarily, but in this case it probably is. Bureaucracy protects liberty, while autocracy gets things done. That's always been the dichotomy, and in a case like this the advantage goes to autocracy.

Re: Whoa, slow down

[Bobknobber]

If countries need to bypass regulations on tech development to keep pace with a country notorious for its aggressive capital and tech controls, we might have a bigger problem on our hands anyway.

Re:

[phantomfive]

Not necessarily, but in this case it probably is. Bureaucracy protects liberty, while autocracy gets things done.

That's only true if the autocrat is good at managing the bureaucracy, which isn't common.

Re:

[Srin Tuar]

> Bureaucracy protects liberty, while autocracy gets things done. That's always been the dichotomy, and in a case like this the advantage goes to autocracy.

Whoa cowboy, we must have wildly different definitions of liberty if you think "Bureaucracy", its mortal enemy, is what "protects" it.

The dichotomy is that bureaucracy "protects" us from all this scary freedom to do things we want to do, by making all kinds of rules and red tape to stop people from doing stuff.

The trade off is sacrificing liberty.

Re:

[Can'tNot]

Broadly speaking, there are two ways that a government can go about accomplishing things. One is by setting up a lot of checks and protections as obstacles in the way of anything that it wants to do. The second option is that it doesn't do this, and so anything that happens occurs simply by whim or edict.

The first option is slow, but protects against abuse. The second option is fast, but does not.

How about other regulations

[NFN_NLN]

> China Races Ahead of US on AI Regulation

Any regulations on Virus Research? Asking for a friend.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

> China Races Ahead of US on AI Regulation

Any regulations on Virus Research? Asking for a friend.

Any regulations on firearms use? Asking for a , oh he's dead now, nevermind.

Re:

[NFN_NLN]

> Any regulations on firearms use?

Yes. They have an entire department called BATFE that regulates firearms in the US. You can read all about it on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

all we are sayingggg is give...

[chronosschiron]

covid a chance

commentsubject

[Anonymous Coward]

>China
>user rights

"lol." said the AC "lmao even."

Or is this some kind of corporations are people phrasing?

Totalitarian Society

[registrations_suck]

Totalitarian society leads the way in making new rules. Who would have guessed???

Re:

[jalvarez13]

The difference is in the kind of rules being enacted. Totalitarian societies win in rules associated with control, but lag behind in regulations aimed at protecting the citizens from harm. Well funtioning democracies have way more rules around food safety, privacy protection, child labor, etc.

- cultural differences -

[swell]

I live in the American West. We came here for gold, adventure and good surfing. We aren't afraid of new things, we create them. This AI novelty is interesting and we want to see its potential. We have no interest in squelching that potential until it is proven harmful.

China's leaders, OTOH, are afraid of their people. Their primary concern is that the people never know what the free world is like. Hiding that while allowing AI is a major challenge for them.

Re:

[znrt]

the people never know what the free world is like

their people already own about half of the "free world", i guess they have a pretty good idea what it is like by now. and while you keep daydreaming lost in your delusion of "liberty", they're going to eat your lunch too.

Re: - cultural differences -

[ffkom]

their people already own about half of the "free world", i guess they have a pretty good idea what it is like by now.

Also, China, unlike the old USSR or North Korea, usually does not prevent its citizens from traveling abroad. And they increasingly do so, in very large numbers. So they for sure have an idea what western countries are like. Including the rapidly increasing self-censorship, where people in western countries do no longer dare to speak their opinion, even in non public conversations, in fear of "offending someone". If you ask the average Chinese, they don't see their lives as "less free" - in almost every aspect other than not getting to vote their government.

It is certainly true that the CCP is somewhat afraid of its people - which may not be worse than ruling politicians who can be comfortably confident that elections are never going to change anything much.

Re: - cultural differences -

[mspohr]

By the time that AI is proven harmful, it will be too late.
The large tech monopolies are quickly establishing "facts on the ground" that will be impossible to overturn (especially since they are constantly bribing politicians).

Re: - cultural differences -

[Bobknobber]

Huh? AI tech as it currently is already poses serious harms. Privacy, security, misinformation, loss of jobs, and an increasingly centralized/controlled internet are being enabled by this tech. Skynet is the least of our problems right now.

I have no love for the CCP, but regulations are critical to ensure that companies do not just externalize the costs of this tech onto the public. Even more when these same companies are trying to work their way into our lives like parasites to sell products.

Desperation

[WaffleMonster]

ZOMG regulate now or we'll fall behind China = established interests begging for regulation before new entrants erode their market positions.

We take the risks. China reaps the benefit.

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Many crazy missteps are going to happen with AI. When the dust settles, the Chinese will copy the result with all the safeguards in place and then some.

Turn the tables

[PuddleBoy]

Is there a reason why, if we're so far behind, we can't just turn the tables (on the usual US/China relationship) and 'borrow' their IP and use it in the US?

(I am NOT advocating copying word-for-word, but rather using their work as a source of ideas for our own regulation. Kinda like feeding their information into our ChatGPT...)

I'd rather be killed by AI

[aldousd666]

IF I have a choice between living in a world like China or AI doom, just shoot me already.

That's because...

[christoban]

That's because the CCP doesn't think about anything they do before they do it. They are always very quick to pass laws, and very, VERY reluctant to admit error. Look at their record on the catastrophic one child policy and their draconian pandemic response.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a quick look at China vs India will tell you how successful the 1 child for non minority city dwellers was.

Ignorance can be fixed

[NewYork]

"STUPID is forever. Ignorance can be fixed" - Don Wood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]