China’s ChatBot Advantage May Come From a Dark Place
Censorship and information control are an unfortunate aspect of training accurate artificial intelligence machines.
Under the microscope.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergRapid developments in generative artificial intelligence mean that for the first time in more than a decade, Chinese and US internet companies are rivals in a race for supremacy over the same realm of technology. Not since the Great Firewall went up and names like Google, Facebook and Yahoo departed have local giants Baidu Inc. and NetEase Inc. been forced to measure up against foreign counterparts.
Domestic internet companies had an advantage in the previous battle over search engines and social media because of protectionist policies and an unwillingness by overseas firms to comply with censorship requirements. In the rush to perfect chat bots, which create text that mimics humans, China’s internet players may again have an edge thanks to Beijing’s history of information control.