WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, warned of authoritarian governments like the Chinese Communist Party using artificial intelligence (AI) to further their surveillance operations.

 

Communist China Is Using AI To Enhance Surveillance Of Uyghurs

“I've watched what has happened in China and how they are using AI to grow the surveillance state. They're very aggressive in this, and we know that they have used it. A good example is the way they have exploited vulnerabilities in Apple's iPhone - in the iMessage system - to surveil and track the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province. The CCP uses facial recognition as a part of their tracking.”  – Senator Blackburn

The CCP Aims To Be Global Leader In AI By 2030, Threatening U.S. Innovation And Values

“In the 2017 National AI Development Plan that they brought forward, China declared its goal of becoming the world leader in AI by 2030. And [China’s] pursuing this – they’re the most aggressive filer of patents for AI technologies. They are constantly challenging our innovators through the PTAB process. So, we should be watching their goals, and this should concern each and every one of us who cares about preserving the freedoms and the democratic values that we hold here in America.”  – Senator Blackburn

As AI Develops, U.S. Needs To Consider China’s Ambitions

“As we work to deploy AI technologies here, we need to make a conscious effort to consider the potential impact that those technologies could have on human rights and on how we approach issues such as data collection, data retention, surveillance, and of course, deep fakes. This is not to say that we should halt AI development in its tracks or look at approaches that would regulate it out of existence. To the contrary, doing that would practically guarantee that China becomes the world's leader in AI, giving it the opening that President Xi wants to impose the CCP’s authoritarian values around the world. But we do need to think carefully about how we deploy AI technologies and the absence of a national privacy law, which we still do not have a federal online consumer privacy protection. We also need to be careful about how we identify and how we stop unauthorized utilizations of AI, whether to surveil or to scam unsuspecting people.”  – Senator Blackburn