China Salon on Emergent Digital Repression: How the PRC is using AI to Censor, Surveil, and Troll

At this “China Salon,” hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy, China Digital Times  founder and editor-in-chief Xiao Qiang and the Special Competitive Studies Project’s David Lin will explore how large language models (LLMs) and other advanced AI developments fit into the PRC’s wider apparatus of digital repression and worldwide influence projection. How do LLMs change the equation for China’s censorship ambitions, and in what ways are PRC information controls influencing AI outputs in China and around the world? As global scrutiny on China grows and as the PRC accelerates its drive toward self-reliance and indigenous innovation, how is Beijing reinventing its “Great Firewall” up and down the technology stack?

Join us as the discussants unpack the PRC’s authoritarian approach to AI and consider steps that can be taken to prevent these ambitions from shaping our digital future.