Chinese regulator issues draft guideline on ChatGPT and AGI applications

China's Internet industry regulator released on Tuesday a draft guideline on ChatGPT and similar application usage, indicating the country's concerns on the risks and negative aspects of the booming generative artificial intelligence frenzy.

The draft, called "Generative Artificial Intelligence Services Management Guideline," was published online on Tuesday. It consisted of five requirements and several detailed rules and explanations.

According to the draft, generative AI should obey general human ethics; the algorithm design, covering training data selection and model generation and optimization should prevent discrimination on race, ethnicity, faith, country, gender, age and occupation, and AI services should avoid unfairness, fake news and leakage of personal information and business secrets. Meanwhile, AI-generated pictures and videos should be marked as such.

The regulator did not mention when the guideline would officially take effect or how long the period for public comment would last.

Generative AI is often described as a race for Chinese tech firms, which had sped up unveiling their own AI tools and services following the global ChatGPT frenzy. ChatGPT is not available on the Chinese mainland yet.

Italy has temporarily banned ChatGPT and launched a probe over associated suspected breaches of privacy rules. That inspired European countries and global society to consider whether harsher measures are needed to rein in wildly popular chatbots, according to media reports.

Also on Monday, China's payment and clearing industry association warned against using Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence tools due to "risks such as cross-border data leaks."

The Payment & Clearing Association of China is governed by China's central bank.