Chinas spymaster warns that AI is a threat to Communist Party rule

Beijing’s top spy chief warned that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule as he called for greater government oversight in the tech revolution.Echoing new concerns in the field of AI about the rapid pace of development, Chen Yixin, the head of China’s Ministry of State Security, said the technology had the potential to strike at political stability and the country’s cyber defenses.

“Artificial intelligence is penetrating all aspects of human society at an unprecedented speed, breadth, and depth, profoundly reshaping the global economic structure, power dynamics, innovation paradigms, and social governance logic,” Chen wrote in the state-run China Cyberspace Magazine.“We must recognize the opportunities and seize the initiative, while also understanding the risks and adhering to the bottom line,” he added.Unlike the West’s concerns over the possibility of AI reaching consciousness and threatening humanity, Chen’s worries focused on how foreign agents and enemies of the state may use AI for “large-scale espionage.”The Chinese spymaster specifically pointed at US tech companies and their AI models as threats to national security and the CCP’s standing.

Chen said AI could be used to create fake videos and audio that could spread propaganda against the ruling party, which typically looks down on the use of deepfake content.The security chief also warned about AI’s potential to dramatically lower the bar for a new wave of cyberattacks that could disrupt the country’s infrastructure.“Some countries and organizations possess the capability to rapidly and in large quantities discover vulnerabilities, automatically connect attack paths, and complete complex hacking tasks, drastically lowering the technical barriers and costs of launching cyberattacks and posing serious risks to China’s critical information infrastructure,” Chen wrote.

Despite the new concerns, Chen said it was paramount that C...