Privacy vs social good: AI must balance responsibilities, China governance expert says

China has been pushing full-steam ahead with applications of artificial intelligence despite a rising chorus of concern in the West over surveillance and the potential for breaches of personal privacy.

The central government sees it as an efficient means of better policing and managing a country of 1.4 billion people, using the ability of AI to gather and process vast amounts of data to solve a raft of social problems, such as petty crime and more equal access to quality healthcare and education services.

What’s more, AI is also expected to create a wave of new, higher skilled, technology-driven jobs.

The effectiveness of AI “use cases” in China also depends to some degree on its geography and demographics, says Xue Lan, a policy expert who is advising China’s science and technology ministry on AI governance. For example, China is a vast land mass with acute differences in population density between urban and rural areas, throwing up some particular problems.

Citing the example of facial recognition and public surveillance, Xue says finding petty criminals such as pickpockets, or small children separated from their parents in a public park in a big city, can be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack without the help of advanced camera surveillance technologies.

“Facial recognition does solve quite a big problem in these cases, even though they may not be as prevalent in other countries [in the West], so at this point, I’d say let’s not rush to pass judgment on who is right and who is wrong,” said Xue, who is also dean of the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, in an interview in Guangzhou last month.