China being in the driver seat of AI is dangerous

But this exhortation makes his subsequent vow to work directly with “our competitors” to harness the power of AI “for good” all the more curious. Working with our competitors, like China, would only empower the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to write the rules of the road for AI. And we don’t want China in the driver’s seat.

China is at the bleeding edge of using emerging technologies for oppression—both at home and abroad. Journalists and human-rights activists have long pointed to a state-run data system that uses AI to flag whole categories of people for detention in the western Xinjiang region.

Elsewhere, the Chinese government is partnering with technology companies like iFlytek to develop an AI-powered voice-recognition system that can automatically identify specific voices in phone conversations. Its mass facial-recognition systems operate under standards that segment the population by eyebrow size and skin color. “Sharp Eyes,” a sweeping public-private surveillance project, employs AI to analyze peoples’ movements, associations, medical records, online behaviors and more to create an omnipresent panopticon aimed at reinforcing social control.

And the CCP isn’t shy about exporting these AI technologies to like-minded governments. Since at least 2018, China has provided AI-driven digital monitoring capabilities to countries across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and beyond. Today, China maintains 296 surveillance relationships in 96 countries, many via its design1ated “AI Champion” companies.

In Ecuador alone, Chinese telecommunications company Huawei helped build a network of over 4,000 cameras for its police and intelligence services. In Zimbabwe, Chinese firm CloudWalk maintains multiple AI and biometric data partnerships with Harare. In Malaysia, police wear body-mounted cameras developed by one of China’s AI Champions, tech startup Yitu. In Pakistan, Chinese policing technologies with predictive analytics and “smart city” surveillance capabilities empower Islamabad to monitor and control its citizens.

If international cooperation requires a common vision for how the technology is used, then America and China couldn’t be further apart.

Cooperation on AI development could also bolster the capabilities of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). In 2019, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford argued that private tech companies like Google working in China provided “a direct benefit” to the Chinese military. (This is due to the CCP’s strategy of Military Civil-Fusion, which seeks, in part, to orient technological progress in service of its military goals.)

In fact, China has already developed multiple offensive applications of AI that will not redound to the benefit of the United States and our allies like Taiwan. According to the Department of Defense’s 2020 China Military Power Report, China maintains AI-enabled unmanned surface vessels reportedly intended for patrols in the disputed South China Sea. The same report revealed the CCP has already developed armed swarming drones that claim to use AI for autonomous guidance, target acquisition and “attack execution.”