- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2088202
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For their own people [the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, has] imposed a dystopia, including the “great firewall” to control information from the outside. It also exerts strict control over domestic Internet information, uses a vast surveillance camera network with facial recognition and monitors financial transactions done online. If the CCP can think of any way to impose more control over their subjects they will do it.
Abroad they traditionally used RICE (Reward, Ideology, Coercion and Ego) techniques to not only recruit spies, they have used it to win over politicians, scientists and other useful people. They have weaponized overseas Chinese community groups, taken over their media and even set up police stations around the world.
Through software like ByteDance’s TikTok they are capable of sweeping data collection, while Chinese hackers steal all sorts of information and attack online systems. Huawei used their telecommunications equipment to collect yet more.
They have worked to subvert algorithms even in foreign Web sites by flooding the Internet with disinformation and misinformation. Their infamous “little pink” and “50-cent” armies roam the Internet spreading their agenda.
MAKING PROPAGANDA
AI is taking this to an exponentially higher level.
The CCP is investing heavily in AI because it opens opportunities for the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) and Ministry of State Security (MSS) to vastly increase its power worldwide.
While Hailuo [a very popular AI used to create videos which is based in Shanghai] can be very useful in creating propaganda, TikTok owner ByteDance’s just released OmniHuman-1, which is explicitly for deepfakes and is shockingly good. It is able to produce videos from pictures, video and audio fed by the user to create videos realistic enough to require paying attention.
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The gullible will fall for outrageous deepfakes in partisan social media, but these are pretty easy to discredit. It is the more subtle videos that are concerning because they can be used subtly to change the narrative, such as editing a video of the US Secretary of State and swap out “one China policy” for “one China principle.”
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The release last month of DeepSeek-R1 AI by Hangzhou-based High Flyer rightly attracted a vast amount of attention. Users amused themselves trying to get around the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) imposed censorship, but more alarmingly hackers discovered unprotected data ports [in Deepseek], that data was being shared with TikTok and many reminded us that by law they must share any data with the CCP.
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Perhaps intentionally to avoid widespread press scrutiny, the most powerful AI agent ever, UI-TARS, was released during the DeepSeek hoopla. AI agents by American companies require a paid subscription but offer powerful research capabilities and other functions by taking over a browser and doing work for you.
Unlike previous AI agents, UI-TARS comes in two varieties, one taking over the browser like the others, but with a second option to take over the entire computer or phone.
It can install software, scrape any bit of data it likes and make all sorts of modifications all on its own following whatever instructions it is given whether online or not. That could completely change how we work, play and communicate on our devices.
UI-TARS is open source, so unlike the American AI agents, developers can access, modify and distribute the software for free. This should encourage widespread adoption, including under different branding as long as they retain the original copyright notice, license text and notices in the source code, which non-coders never read.
Why would they do this for free instead of requiring a subscription? To make sure it gets on to as many devices as possible.
How nice of ByteDance, the developer of UI-TARS.
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Soon people will be downloading off-brand UI-TARS without knowing it, and there could be hundreds or even thousands of brands running it. Your […] AI agent running on UI-TARS can act as spyware tracking your every move and stealing all your data for Beijing, and it will know everything about you — opening up blackmail opportunities on a massive scale.
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As is the case on TikTok, results playing up the CCP line would also be prioritized and content scrubbed from the results as DeepSeek-R1 AI does now, albeit still rather clumsily. DeepSeek-generated articles and books, propaganda videos made with Hailuo AI and deepfake videos made or modified by OmniHuman would feature prominently.
Millions of people around the world could soon be constantly surveiled through their own cameras and microphones, monitored and tracked and living in an alternate information reality — just like in China.
The CCP would have the ability to control nearly every aspect of these people’s lives — just like in China.
But unlike the Chinese, they would not even know how much power they have lost to the CCP.
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I like how they frame it as a terrible thing when China does it. Meanwhile, the US has been using corporate espionage to get around anti-surveillance laws for years. Because if it’s a corporation that’s doing the invading of privacy, it’s not illegal for the government to buy access and reap the benefits.
Yeah, but that’s the difference between USA & China – USA can be fucking dumb sometimes, but generally speaking, it tends to not be too bad to be a citizen & live here (except for, of course, the infinite tax-raping). People were fighting & cheating to get to America. We’ve got immigrant US politicians, elected, and saying “America bad”.
China is not only dumb sometimes, but fucking scary. Just speaking out against the government (politician or not), and you can just disappear. They seem to be amoral, as they allow lots of scams & crimes to be perpetrated, in China & abroad. But god help you if the government sees you, what you do…and really doesn’t fucking like you. AI could give them all the power & control. China + AI = death, it’s game over.
All governments suck, but somebody is going to be the global hegemon. Somebody will be on top, and they’re probably going to be on top because they’re a bully enforcing their power. The USA is far from perfect…but I still favor US control over China, based on everything I read & witness. China has its place in the world. But they cannot be allowed to dominate the world; they are lacking in any serious capacity of morals or benevolence.
Come to think of it, other than straightforward accomplishments of science/tech/etc, I couldn’t think of a single altruistic thing China has ever done. Ever. I Googled it & “China is good for Chinese citizens”, okay, so you don’t beat your kids that’s not really praiseworthy…this global Belt & Road initiative, at first glance, might be the closest to a good deed done to others outside of China. Even when I Google good things China has done, it also points out issues of government control, human rights concerns, and lack of transparency. 🤭 Can’t even talk about the good without people saying btw, China is sketchy as all hell.
