A suspect identified only as "Hong" was detained by local authorities and arrested in China's Gansu district after allegedly using ChatGPT to generate false news.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, Hong was arrested after law enforcement officers uncovered an investigation into an unsubstantiated article related to a train accident on April 18.
Hong's arrest for "using artificial intelligence technology to fabricate false and untrue information" came after cybersecurity specialists discovered that at least 20 accounts had simultaneously posted the fake news article on a popular blogging site hosted by the Chinese technology conglomerate Baidu.
China's laws regarding the use of social media are considered among the strictest in the world. Police say Hong was arrested for violating an ordinance against "picking fights and causing trouble," a general law that specifically covers the spread of false news and rumors on the Internet.
If charged, Hong faces up to five years in prison under the normal statute. However, if the courts find the crime heinous, they could be sentenced to up to 10 years under the expanded provisions of the law covering crimes considered especially serious.
While the ChatGPT service is currently banned in China, its use can be obfuscated by virtual private networks (VPNs).
Related: China Is Developing AI Without US Chips: Here's How
Similar local artificial intelligence (AI) services, such as Alibaba's 'Tongyi Qianwen', a recently announced generative AI model trained to answer questions in both English and Mandarin, have received the blessing of the Chinese government. However, as Cointelegraph reported in mid-April, still unclear if Tongyi Qianwen will have the same creative skills as ChatGPT.
The lack of robust generative AI models in China could have a chilling effect on the nation's tech scene, especially in sectors like fintech and cryptocurrency trading, where the use of ChatGPT and products built on OpenAI's GPT API have exploded in popularity.
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