China Is Reportedly Developing AI That Judges One’s Loyalty Towards Ruling Party

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a double-edged sword. While often deployed in the name of advancing efficiency, the technology has also been exploited by bad players, such as job applicants using deepfakes to snag jobs.

Recently, reports emerging from China have signaled another worrying development: researchers have created a device that uses AI to judge one’s loyalty towards the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

According to Radio Free Asia, a now-deleted Weibo post showcased a short video on the project, which the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center called an example of “artificial intelligence empowering party-building.” 

“Guaranteeing the quality of party-member activities is turning into a problem in need of coordination,” the post’s text summary purportedly read. 

“This equipment is a kind of smart ideology, using AI technology to extract and integrate facial expressions, EEG readings, and skin conductivity … making it possible to ascertain the levels of concentration, recognition, and mastery of ideological and political education,” it added. 

If that wasn’t chilling enough, the site reported that the device will make use of “emotionally intelligence computing” to determine if those in question “feel grateful to the CCP, do as it tells them, and follow its lead.” 

While the fact the post was later removed may suggest the CCP’s awareness of public sentiment, with comments calling the idea “totalitarian” and likening it to George Orwell’s 1984, it certainly triggers unease to think of technology being used to analyze a person’s every move and expression.

As Futurism pointed out, China isn’t the only country working on such facial recognition technology, with researchers at the University of Chicago coming up with a system that detects crimes before it happens, though they argue it will be used to expose prejudices instead of heeding them. 

It remains to be seen if nations across the globe decide to move forward with such invasive inventions, but if dystopian novels are anything to go by, things can get uncomfortable very quickly.

[via Futurism and Radio Free Asia, cover image via BiancoBlue | Dreamstime.com]