Elusive Ernie: China's new chatbot has a censorship problem

This is the best summary I could come up with:

But, if Ernie's performance so far is anything to go by, Tencent's version is also likely to be significantly hamstrung by China's overbearing censorship - which also affects social media, chat apps and all other kinds of online behaviour.

Entering the date of the Tiananmen Square crackdown (4 June 1989), or the name of a jailed former senior Communist Party figure (Bo Xilai), or the name of China's Nobel Peace Prize laureate who died in prison (Liu Xiaobo) also draw the response: "Let's talk about something else".

But the company's CEO and co-founder, Robin Li, said in an email that "Baidu will collect massive valuable real-world human feedback.

This will not only help improve Baidu's foundation model but also iterate Ernie Bot on a much faster pace, ultimately leading to a superior user experience."

"China's recent regulations on generative AI models impose strict requirements on services that have 'public opinion properties' or the capacity to influence societal views," said Prof Jeffrey Ding from the George Washington University.

But the Cyberspace Administration of China ruled that they should "reflect core socialist values" and avoid disseminating information which undermines "state power" or "national unity".

The original article contains 765 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

journalist asks chatbot

"Hey, do you think it would be a good idea to assassinate the political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party?"

chatbot responds

"Woah, what the hell kinda question is that?"

journalist starts typing

There must obviously be some CCP censorship of this chatbot.