China is considering drafting national legislation to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) as the field continues to expand with the rapid development of ChatGPT and other AI-powered technologies.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, included preparing an AI draft law for review in its 2023 legislative work plan, which was released Tuesday. The standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, will review the draft before putting it to a vote, though the timeline for that process remains unclear.
An AI law is needed to deal with growing threats and legal issues posed by the technology, which is now being broadly applied in the medical, transportation, finance, education and entertainment industries, said Li Zonghui, vice president of the Institute of the Internet and AI Rule of Law at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“With the rapid development of language model tools like GPT-4 and GPT-5, there is an increasing threat to basic human ethics and even survival. It is necessary to make proactive provisions through laws to deal with the threats,” Li told Caixin.
Currently, there is no specific national law governing the AI industry. A 2017 State Council plan stated that the country will aim by 2025 to establish laws, ethical norms and policy frameworks while establishing capabilities to control and make security assessments about AI technologies.
In April, China’s top internet regulator issued a draft document seeking solutions to regulate AI-generated content.
Read more Special Report: China’s AI Charge
On the local level, the southern tech hub of Shenzhen released the country’s first set of specialized local regulations for the AI industry in September 2022. The document defined AI from a technical point of view as the simulation, extension or expansion of human intelligence by using human-controlled computers or devices to sense the environment, acquire knowledge and make deductions.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
