How China uses persuasive technology for social control

Hi, I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven AM. As companies across the world pursue generative AI technology, new forms of manipulation become possible. At the forefront of this are neurotechnologies which directly connect to your brain and collect your brain data, and persuasive technologies which can use that

Yes, absolutely so.

What we've been seeing in Taiwan for a while now is a sophisticated use of Ai by the Chinese government to influence public opinion and disrupt democracy.

There.

With just over forty days till the elections, China's election interference is ramping up. A scholar says China is sending targeted propaganda videos to Taiwan voters by using fake Internet accounts, real influencers, and big data analytics. The New York Times writes that a new wave of this information is hitting Taiwan, testing the ISLA le defenses.

So for example, during the elections and general elections in Taiwan in twenty twenty four, there were very large these information campaigns that targeted candidates from the Democratic Progressive Party and that included current President Lei Chin term.

That's presidential candidate William Lai. His Democratic Progressive Party or DPP rejects Beijing and wants closer ties with the West. But in this YouTube video, Lie praises the pro China opposition, claiming they represent Taiwan's mainstream view. Turns out this video is a fake Stato got a hootion then produced with artificial intelligence using a clip from this actual press conference where Lie condemned his rivals.

These campaigns weren't just your typical fake news stories. You know, they used AI generated content like videos and avatars to make the messaging more believable but also harder to detect, and platforms get flooded with that type of content all the time.

Now.

In fact, Taiwan's National Security Bureau reported that just in the first three months of twenty twenty five, they detected over five hundred thousand instances of CCP linked this information.

And so do we know what effect this disinformation had on people in Taiwan on what they believe to be true about their country? Right now?

This is not just peculiar to Taiwan, I think, but the impact there has definitely been significant. So these AI driven campaigns are usually designed to confuse people and they make it much harder for people to trust whatever they see online. So by tailoring these messages to specific groups, this information becomes much more persuasive, and this has led to increased polarization in any places. You know that people are more divided and it's harder for them to figure

And the tech involved in all of this is evolving very rapidly when it comes to China. How intertwined is that development in the tech sector with the CCP.

So in China, the government and the tech industry are deeply intertwined through many initiatives, and one of them is called military civil fusion. This initiative means that private companies are often expected to align their innovations with the government's goal, and especially tech companies, so whether it's in the space of surveillance or propaganda or even military applications.

For example, companies like Silicon.

Intelligence or gore Tech are developing AI tools that can detect emotions or create lifelike avatars, and emotion detection AI can predict when someone is at its most vulnerable to manipulation so that you can deliver those targeted messages exactly at the right moment, and this can be used to suppress protests like it often is, but also to spread propaganda or even influence events. So these initiatives are directed

You're talking about the government really working hand in hand with private companies to work out how to read emotions and then exploit them. Can you tell me a bit more about how those models are trained.

Absolutely, some companies were accused of training these systems by analyzing the responses of Oiger detainees in Sinzhang Province of China. We're you know, up to one million Oiger Muslims have been detained for years now under very suspect circumstansus that the United Nations says may account to crimes against humanity.

So while these detainees.

Were in prison or in camps, these company is basically inter them to train their algorithms. So this is something that you know, the Chinese government has achieved a fairly high degree of success at home already. So it's something that we call tech and hanced authoritarianism. So these tools have for a long time allowed the Chinese government to monitor people but also increasingly shape how people think and how they behave.

And it's not just happening in China.

These technologies are being exported and used globally in ways that can unfortunately undermine democracy and human rights.

After the break, how are being influenced without even knowing it? Daria, You've been looking into the very rapid evolution happening in persuasive technologies. What direction is this technology taking? What types of tech are we going to see more and more of?

So aside from generative AI that we are all more familiar with, there is things that are a little bit more They got a little bit deeper into influencing us with us noticing, So things like immersive technologies, you know when you wear wearable devices that can send you pins and nudges and get you to do things. Even more, things like neurotechnologies, so technologies that are able to directly

Yeah, so we're talking about tech that can read us, influence us, influence how we might be feeling. But are we likely to know that that is happening. Are we likely to register that we're being influenced by perspective technologies as it's happening.

Honestly, probably not, or like not in most cases unless the most obvious cases. This is what these technologies are designed to do. They're designed to influence in a way. There is such ale and increasingly undetectable, So it's not our fault for not being able to pick it up. But it's just by design and how these technologies are developed. But don't get me wrong, you know they do have

When you look at so called perspective tech and how it's advancing, is there any one development in particular that you think about. I mean, what keeps you up at night when you're thinking about all of this.

I think neurotechnologies is definitely something that's quite spooky to me, especially when now increasingly companies are able to read brain wavelength. If one day companies are actually able to predict what we're thinking before we even think that, then they can change.

Those thoughts, it's really scary.

I actually don't know whether we truly want that from tech companies. So something I really want to emphasize is that I do think we should start trying to shape these technologies in a way that really benefits society and that follows the values that we want to achieve not just reinforcing control or manipulation, either for commercial or political purposes.

These technologies, as you say, they're being used around the world. If we were to focus that on have CCP is thinking about and how it's using this kind of technology, What are the implications for us here in Australia.

I think the implications are really profound.

Chinese companies that are subjects to a CCP oversight, they are exporting technologies globally, including to Australia.

Something that is peculiar to.

China is that under Chinese law, these companies are required to share data with the government under national security circumstances. So this raises significant security and privacy concerns for Australia. This means that we really should be vigilant about the technologies that we adopt and the technologies that we become dependent on, especially in light of the potential risks that these pose to our national security and democratic values.

And how do you think Australia is going on that on its ability to regulate these kinds of technologies. Do you think that we are prepared for what's coming?

You know, the Australian government has made some progress especially in addressing cyber foreign interference by other states, but it still leaves behind, especially when you think of about how quickly persuasive technologies are developing. So there is a lack of comprehensive regulation. But this is true for most countries

Well, Daria, thank you for talking to me.

It's been very interesting. Thank you for having me.

News today, the Prime Minister Anthony Alberanzi has hit back at comments from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Nyahu and echoed by the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, that there is no starvation crisis in Gaza. It's been reported that Albonzi told the Labor Caucus room that Israel's stance is quote beyond comprehension.