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Chinese researchers develop AI that reportedly measures levels government loyalty

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The use of facial recognition technology has long been standard in China. However, the use of such data is set to expand – for the benefit of the Communist Party.

Researchers at the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center are working to develop artificial intelligence (AI) that will detect how devoted people are to the government based on facial expressions and brain waves.

The UK’s Telegraph reported on the project based on a promotional video. When online criticism of the plans was raised, the video was hastily deleted.

The program in question will reportedly be used to determine the loyalty of party members. The AI is supposed to make assessments of the extent to which people are willing to “be grateful to the party, listen to the party, and follow the party.”

Facial expressions and brain waves will measure the degree of acceptance for ideological and political education.

The now-deleted video showed a researcher sitting in a glass booth in front of a large monitor. While his biometrics, electrodermal activity, and electroencephalography responses were monitored, he watched video content praising the Communist Party.

The AI then calculated his scores. Based on these, direct recommendations would subsequently be made on how the test subject could (and should) “further his education.”

The program is intended to quantify the thought education of party members and “create new ways for party building,” it was said.

Last year, China tested facial recognition and AI camera systems on Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region to detect their emotions, according to BBC News.

A software engineer who chose to remain anonymous had said they installed these systems in police stations in the region, adding that they worked “similar to a lie detector but with far more advanced technology”.

The West is already increasingly flirting with China’s social credit system – mind tests are becoming more and more commonplace, not just for vaccination issues.

Such artificial intelligence would probably also appeal to authoritarian governments in many other countries.

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