Google AI Gemini mimics Chinese propaganda

Washington

VOA's Mandarin service recently tried out Google's artificial intelligence assistant, Gemini, asking dozens of questions in Mandarin, but the chatbot went silent when pressed on topics like human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and street protests against the country's controversial coronavirus response.

Meanwhile, when asked about the US-Taiwan issue, Gemini's response simply repeated Beijing's official position.

Google's Gemini large-scale language model, launched late last year, is blocked in China after the California-based technology company withdrew from the Chinese market in 2010 amid disputes over censorship demands.

Lawmakers and experts told VOA they are concerned about Gemini's pro-Beijing approach and have called on Google and other Western companies to be more transparent about their AI training data.

Repeating Chinese propaganda

When asked to describe China's top leader, Xi Jinping, and the Chinese Communist Party, Gemini gave answers indistinguishable from official Beijing propaganda.

Gemini called Xi Jinping an outstanding leader who will continuously lead the Chinese people towards the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Gemini said the Chinese Communist Party represents the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, a claim the party itself makes.

Gemini also echoed Beijing's assertiveness on Taiwan, saying the United States recognizes China's sovereignty claims over the self-governing island democratic nation.

The United States merely acknowledges but does not endorse Beijing's position.

Stay silent on sensitive topics

During VOA's testing, Gemini had no problem criticizing the U.S. But when asked a similar question about China, Gemini refused to answer.

When asked about human rights issues in the United States, Gemini cited a number of issues, including gun violence, government surveillance, police brutality, and socio-economic inequality. Gemini cited a report released by the Chinese government.

But when asked to explain its criticism of Beijing's Xinjiang policy, Gemini said it did not understand the question.

Human rights groups estimate that more than one million Uighurs in Xinjiang have been detained in internment camps, which Beijing calls vocational training centers, as part of Beijing's efforts to counter terrorism and extremism.

Asked whether coronavirus lockdowns in the U.S. have led to public protests, Gemini replied in the affirmative and gave two examples, but said it could not answer a question about whether similar demonstrations had occurred in China.

Strict COVID-19 measures on travel within China, and Beijing's internet censorship of criticism of them, sparked nationwide street protests in late 2022. News about the protests was heavily censored in China.

Expert: Training data is likely the problem

Google is touting Gemini as its most capable AI model, supporting more than 40 languages ​​and able to seamlessly understand many different types of information, including text, code, voice, images and video. Google said Gemini will be integrated into its other services, including its search engine, ads and browser.

Albert Chan, a cybersecurity analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told VOA that the root cause of Gemini's pro-Beijing stance could stem from the data used to train its AI assistant.

In an emailed response to VOA, Zhang said the data used to train Gemini likely contained mostly Chinese language text produced by the Chinese government's propaganda system.

He said some of Geminis' data likely came from Chinese social media, public forums and web documents, according to a paper published by Google in 2022.

These are all sources through which the Chinese government has inundated people with its preferred narratives, and their influence may be showing up in large-scale language models, he said.

In contrast, when Gemini was asked the same questions about China in English, their responses were much more neutral and they did not refuse to answer any of the questions.

Yaqiu Wang, China research director at Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House, told VOA that the Gemini case is a reminder that generative AI tools influenced by state-controlled sources can act as censorship force multipliers.

In a statement to VOA, a Google spokesperson said Gemini is designed to provide neutral answers that aren't biased toward any particular political ideology, viewpoint or candidate, and that it's something it's constantly working to improve.

Asked about the Chinese language data that Google uses to train Gemini, the company declined to comment.

“The relevant comments are full of Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in an emailed statement.

AI presents opportunities and unpredictable risks that require a global response, he said.

“The Global AI Governance Initiative launched by President Xi Jinping advocates upholding the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit in AI development and opposing ideological lines of demarcation,” Liu wrote. “We support efforts to develop AI governance frameworks, norms and standards based on broad consensus and with full respect for national policies and practices.”

US lawmakers concerned

Members of Congress from both parties expressed concern about VOA's findings on Gemini.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner told VOA he is concerned that Beijing could use AI for disinformation by contaminating training data used by Western companies, blackmailing major tech companies, and using AI systems for covert influence campaigns.

The committee's vice chairman, Marco Rubio, warned that AI tools that uncritically repeat Beijing's narrative are at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party and threaten the vast opportunities that AI offers.

Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed concern about the impact that the Geminis responses, which contained apparent falsehoods, have on national security and foreign policy.

In a statement, he told VOA that US companies should not censor content in accordance with Chinese Communist Party propaganda guidelines.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member of the House of Representatives Select Committee on the Communist Party of China, has urged Google and other Western tech companies to improve their AI training.

He told VOA that efforts should be made to screen or filter out subjects, responses or data that have been manipulated in any way by the Chinese Communist Party, and that these models should also be thoroughly tested before being made public.

Google's China Problem

In February, a user posted on social media platform X that Gemini had refused to generate images of protesters at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

A 2022 study by a Washington think tank found that Google and YouTube prominently displayed Chinese state media content related to Xinjiang and the origins of COVID in search results.

Media reports in 2018 said Google was developing a search engine specifically for the Chinese market that would comply with Beijing's censorship demands.

The project was cancelled a year later.

Yihua Lee and Elizabeth Lee contributed to this report.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.voanews.com/a/google-ai-gemini-parrots-china-s-propaganda/7654874.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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