How are authoritarian regimes weaponizing AI for censorship and surveillance? At this “China Salon” hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy and moderated by the Forum’s Beth Kerley, China Digital Times founder Xiao Qiang and the Special Competitive Studies Project’s David Lin unpack how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is leveraging AI for unprecedented information control–and the implications beyond China’s borders.
Click here to view the recorded event.
China’s AI-Powered Censorship
According to Xiao, China is the global leader in censorship, and AI has turbocharged the CCP’s ability to suppress speech. Leveraging decades of experience censoring its citizens, Chinese tech companies, in collaboration with the CCP, have trained large language models to prohibit unfavorable outputs and generate propaganda that “poisons” the internet. Beijing seeks to control words and their use in everyday society, attempting to achieve “semantic”.
Lin underscored just how effective this system has become, noting that China has achieved what once seemed impossible: controlling a decentralized, global, and open internet. As Lin put it, they’ve managed to “nail Jello to the wall.” But China’s ambitions extend far beyond chatbots. The country is integrating AI into its entire technological infrastructure, supercharging everything from mass surveillance systems to autonomous weapons platforms. The ultimate goal, as Xiao explained, is nothing short of “state control at machine speed.”
Exporting Digital Repression
With China at the forefront of AI developments, freedom and democracy are at risk globally. Lin emphasized that the large language models being developed today will serve as foundations for future technologies and that the values with which they are embedded are crucial. China is already exporting its surveillance and censorship tech globally through the Digital Silk Road initiative to over eighty countries, spreading not just hardware but a “philosophy of control” that aims to manage the public rather than serve it.
Fighting Back Against Digital Authoritarianism
Given this daunting challenge, how can civic actors push back on the PRC’s digital authoritarianism? For activists in China, while options are limited, building trusted networks for collaboration is more important than ever. Civil society beyond the Great Firewall should focus on exposing instances of digital authoritarianism, using tools like open source intelligence to hold autocrats and their collaborators accountable. Whenever possible, civil society should also work to increase access to information for people living in restricted environments. As Xiao noted, information freedom anywhere strengthens democracy everywhere, and the job of civic organizations like China Digital Times is to “make the invisible visible.”
Everday citizens can also create a powerful alternative to authoritarian tech by harnessing AI to strengthen democratic systems.
The Enduring Power of Freedom in the Age of AI
The “age of AI,” is fundamentally reshaping the relationship between citizens and their governments. However, people’s desire for freedom transcends any particular era or technology. “Times change fast,” Xiao observed. “But still, democracy remains the calling of our time.”
