Alex Ritson

Well, the first kind of rule is to protect people who use AI.

And they are things like saying the AI platforms mustn't promote self-harm or suicide.

They mustn't encourage gambling.

They also say that AI platforms should detect if users are becoming addicted to talking to these human-like platforms.

And this is a phenomenon that has been noticed elsewhere.

People are literally becoming addicted to it.

It will be up to the companies themselves to detect whether this is happening and, if necessary, cut users off to stop them becoming addicted.

But if the first type of rule announced on Saturday was about protecting users, I would say the second type of rule is about protecting the Chinese government, because I think they're coming around to realize that AI is a double-edged sword and could lead to them being criticized in ways they don't like.

So one of the rules that's been announced is AI platforms mustn't do anything to undermine national security.

Well, we know that can be defined very, very broadly indeed.

It has been used in the past to crack down on the free speech.

Similarly, the rules say that AI platforms must not spread false rumours.

Well, who's going to judge what's false?

The Chinese authorities.

Once again, I think people who care about free speech, they're going to worry about that.

Yeah.

In the US, the Trump administration has been reluctant to regulate AI.

Why are the Chinese authorities doing it?

I think it's because, you know, AI is so unpredictable.

I mean, you look at the Internet when that arrived in China.