Voicing Chinese government propaganda, an AI assistant integrated into the popular e-reader Boox sparked significant controversy. This assistant was developed by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, and its controversial responses set the Reddit community abuzz.
The contentious assistant was ByteDance’s Doubao, intended for Chinese mainlands. It was used by Boox, manufactured by China-based Onyx International. However, Doubao’s responses leaned towards Chinese propaganda, stirring discord among consumers.
Last summer, Boox introduced this AI assistant. By December 2024, users began noting its biased nature. The assistant refused to acknowledge contentious historical events in China, and offered only positive comments about China’s allies like North Korea and Russia. A contrast is observed as the AI boldly critiqued Western nations.
The viral Reddit post about these peculiar responses gained recognition from The Decoder, a leading AI publication, and several YouTubers.
Similar biased responses were observed when TechCrunch posed analogous questions to ByteDance’s Doubao. The AI avoided critical discussion about Russia and North Korea, while denying the occurrence of any massacres by the Chinese government. Doubao mimicked the language of Chinese government spokespeople, calling the alleged Xinjiang genocide a “so-called.”
The outrage simmered down as Boox reportedly replaced Doubao with OpenAI’s GPT-3. Despite the switch, some apprehension exists about the potential risks of incorporating Chinese AI models. AI leaders have voiced warnings about these tools spreading cultural aspects that could cause controversy.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
