Halfway between dystopia and fantasy, a group of researchers from China’s National Center for Comprehensive Science claims the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) capable of reading people’s minds and measure citizen loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Beijing wants to find out if party members are receptive to ideology and also plans to provide real data so that political education is improved.
The main objective, although contradictory, points to boost the confidence of politicians to listen, follow and thank diplomacy.
According to The Times of London, the National Center for Integral Science in Hefei indicates that said AI is based on the brainwave reading and facial expressions to know the reaction of the subjects.
In this way, it could determine how willing the members of the communist political movement in that country are to receive the education provided.
This information came from an article accompanied by a video that has been deleted by the center itself, according to the British newspaper.
From the Hefei center they have involved 43 members of the Communist Party to test this AI, where users sit in front of a screen and look at articles that show the achievements of the party. The results will judge the members to know if accept political thought.
Mind reading: similar cases
Once again, the Asian giant was harshly questioned for implementing technologies whose function could be to control the population, as in the case of the social credit system.
In 2021, it was discovered that he was behind a judicial AI, which would act as a prosecutor to charge criminal suspects with more than 97% accuracy.
Some international media point out that a senior government official has also revealed that Beijing was using emerging biotechnologies to try to develop military applications that included “gene editing, human performance enhancement and bionic interfaces.”
Last year, the US Commerce Department sanctioned a number of Chinese institutions for aiding biotech development, including “suspected brain control weapons.”
The action highlights how private companies in China’s defense and surveillance technology sectors are actively cooperating with government efforts to crack down on members of ethnic and religious minority groups.
The most recent case is that of Tiandy, which has been questioned for being an unethical tool. This AI system used by the Chinese government to suppress the Uyghur minority group in Xinjiang province, along with Huawei’s facial recognition software, emotion detection AI technologies, and many others.
Surveillance is not just limited to authoritarian states, and “safe and smart cities” projects have found a niche in many democracies. Still, techno-authoritarianism will likely prove difficult to control.