'Multi-part case study on China’s media' finds that AI models can't hallucinate away Chinese censorship

Fortune · Mia Osmonbekov

A Nature study and Meta’s Oversight Board found that AI models can reflect censorship and propaganda patterns tied to restrictive speech environments, not only in China. Researchers identified 3% to nearly 10% reproduction of distinctive phrases from Chinese state-coordinated media in multiple models, and retraining a Llama 2 13B model on 64,000 Chinese state-scripted examples shifted responses about whether China is an autocracy. The results suggest model training and behavior changes may carry authoritarian information rules across language and countries, increasing refusals and altering political answers rather than preventing censorship effects.

Why it matters

New research suggests Chinese state media and authoritarian speech restrictions can shape the answers produced by leading U.S. AI models