China is also accelerating its deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). The impetus behind this move is to reinforce its iron-fisted, centralized control over 1.4 billion subjects. It’s no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using AI technologies to supercharge their already robust surveillance and censorship capabilities. It’s hard to overstate the censorship implications, particularly as they infringe upon Americans’ personal freedoms and privacy.
AI is central to China’s massive system of surveillance cameras. Depending on whom you ask, the country is estimated to have as many as 600 million cameras. These cameras are all high-quality video cameras too. They’re packed with powerful AI to provide real-time monitoring and analysis. This revamp of the same technology allows governments to monitor their citizens’ movements and behaviors with extraordinary detail and accuracy.
To date, the CCP has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into AI-related companies. This record funding has turbocharged innovation in the field and turned the R&D spigot wide open. Chinese companies are using government money to accelerate their progress on LLMs. These models are fine-tuned specifically for minority languages such as Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Korean. These models quickly become a tool for the surveillance of protest communications within these communities. They could control and limit the information their constituents receive while tracking what their critics post online.
China’s Supreme Court is making a big effort to bring AI into its judicial system. More recently, the Conference has called on all courts to implement basic AI systems by 2025. This ground-breaking initiative seeks to improve criminal, civil, and family court processes, as well as exploring AI-assisted decision-making tools. Critics are concerned that these systems will be biased in ways that bias the scales of justice in favor of the state and against defendants’ rights.
AI-powered cameras and drones are being rolled out across the country to use pre-crime and proactively enforce laws. In other correctional facilities, staff nonchalantly track inmates’ facial expressions through facial recognition software. When an inmate looks like they’re angry or in distress, the AI alerts jail staff to intervene. These tools are just one example of how AI is playing a key role to more predictive, invasive, and insidious authoritarian control.
“A defendant caught through the help of AI-based surveillance and tried in an AI-assisted courtroom may then be sentenced based on the recommendation of an AI system to a ‘smart prison’… incorporating extensive smart technology.” – ASPI report
The Chinese government’s use of AI extends beyond law enforcement to online platforms, where it automates censorship and shapes public opinion. Automated moderation and sentiment analysis tools further downrank or censor any negative commentary on the government and boost narratives that are politically favorable for the party. Nathan Attrill, an expert on Chinese digital policies, noted that “AI lets the CCP monitor more people, more closely, with less effort.”
“In practice, AI has become the backbone of a far more pervasive and predictive form of authoritarian control.” – Nathan Attrill
This pursuit of AI integration matched with an increasingly authoritarian governance model has set off red flags both within China and abroad. Even without any AI, the ecosystem of AI surveillance tools is exploding. Autocratic countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia are looking to these technologies to monitor and surveil their citizens like China.
The Chinese government has maintained that the evolution towards an AI-driven society presents challenges for cyberspace governance while simultaneously offering new avenues of support. On the flip side, human rights advocates have raised alarm about how these tools could be used to politically persecute opponents.
“Because of the political system, the same technology can be used, and actually is being used, (for) political persecution.” – Xiao Qiang
This optimism about the potential of AI in China is a world apart from fear over its use. A 2024 survey by IPSOS revealed that Chinese respondents were notably more enthusiastic about AI compared to their counterparts in 32 other countries. This disparity raises an important issue about the relationship between Americans and their government when it comes to emerging technologies.
Xiao Qiang, a prominent scholar in digital rights, emphasized that “many of the government’s intentions and policies are now becoming a reality.” He further noted that “the report is showing us the clear indicator that China is heading to the direction (of using AI nationwide) … As soon as the digital infrastructure is ready, those things are being implemented.”
Additionally, Chinese LLMs have quickly become the most prominent models in the world, providing cheaper and more accessible options for companies and research institutions around the world. Qiang cautioned that using these models comes with significant risks: “if you use those models, you’re fundamentally sitting on their platforms.”
