Artificial Intelligence with American Values and Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis of American and Chinese Governmental AI Policies

Hine, E., Floridi, L. Artificial intelligence with American values and Chinese characteristics: a comparative analysis of American and Chinese governmental AI policies. AI & Soc (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01499-8

44 Pages Posted: 27 Jan 2022 Last revised: 4 Apr 2023

See all articles by Emmie Hine

Emmie Hine

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center; University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies; KU Leuven - Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP)

Luciano Floridi

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center; University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies

Date Written: January 11, 2022

Abstract

As China and the United States strive to be the primary global leader in AI, their visions are coming into conflict. This is frequently painted as a fundamental clash of civilisations, with evidence based primarily around each country’s current political system and present geopolitical tensions. However, such a narrow view claims to extrapolate into the future from an analysis of a momentary situation, ignoring a wealth of historical factors that influence each country’s prevailing philosophy of technology and thus their overarching AI strategies. In this article, we build a philosophy-of-technology-grounded framework to analyse what differences in Chinese and American AI policies exist and, on a fundamental level, why they exist. We support this with Natural Language Processing methods to provide an evidentiary basis for our analysis of policy differences. By looking at documents from three different American presidential administrations––Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden––as well as both national and local policy documents (many available only in Chinese) from China, we provide a thorough comparative analysis of policy differences. This article fills a gap in US-China AI policy comparison and constructs a framework for understanding the origin and trajectory of policy differences. By investigating what factors are informing each country’s philosophy of technology and thus their overall approach to AI policy, we argue that while significant obstacles to cooperation remain, there is room for dialogue and mutual growth.

Keywords: China, United States, artificial intelligence, policy, geopolitics

Suggested Citation

Hine, Emmie and Floridi, Luciano, Artificial Intelligence with American Values and Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Analysis of American and Chinese Governmental AI Policies (January 11, 2022). Hine, E., Floridi, L. Artificial intelligence with American values and Chinese characteristics: a comparative analysis of American and Chinese governmental AI policies. AI & Soc (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01499-8, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4006332 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4006332

Emmie Hine (Contact Author)

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center ( email )

85, Trumbull Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States

University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies ( email )

Via Zamboni 22
Bologna, Bo 40100
Italy

KU Leuven - Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP) ( email )

Sint-Michielsstraat 6 box 3443
Leuven, 3000
Belgium

Luciano Floridi

Yale University - Digital Ethics Center ( email )

85 Trumbull Street
New Haven, CT CT 06511
United States
2034326473 (Phone)

University of Bologna- Department of Legal Studies ( email )

Via Zamboni 22
Bologna, Bo 40100
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/luciano.floridi/en

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