- The central government's AI strategy is never directly criticized. Instead you get quotes like
She agrees that the intention of “intelligent education” is positive. As the NGAIDP guidelines suggest, the purpose of the initiative is to assist teachers in developing customized teaching methods and study plans for every student.
- On ubiquitous surveillance cameras, the example given is finding criminals in a crowd, not rounding up dissidents.
- The parts that are criticized are more about the implementation than the intention behind it. The potential for misuse isn't even mentioned, the focus is on potential lack of accuracy instead.
- Responsibility is shifted to the schools and companies, despite following the government's plan:
The plan’s “intelligent education” section describes in detail how China’s government hopes to use AI to boost the country’s education system. Zhang reads me one paragraph from the guidelines without stammering. “So detailed. It’s like they wrote it with a [facial recognition] product right in front of them,” he says.
What I think this all means is that Sixth Tone is trying to be a source for high-quality journalism on social issues in China while conveniently avoiding topics the government would like to remain unmentioned.