China tells big tech cos not to offer ChatGPT services

Regulators have told major Chinese tech companies not to offer ChatGPT services to the public amid growing alarm in Beijing over the AI-powered chatbot’s uncensored replies to user queries.

Tencent Holdings and Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, have been instructed not to offer access to ChatGPT services on their platforms, either directly or via third parties, reports Nikkei Asia citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Tech companies will also need to report to regulators before they launch their own ChatGPT-like services, the sources added.

ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, is not officially available in China but some internet users have been able to access it using a virtual private network (VPN). There have also been dozens of “mini programs” released by third-party developers on Tencent’s WeChat social media app that claim to offer services from ChatGPT.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the world’s largest financial newspaper reported that under regulatory pressure, Tencent has suspended several such third-party services regardless of whether they were connected to ChatGPT or were in fact copycats.

This is not the first time that China has blocked foreign websites or applications. Beijing has banned dozens of prominent U.S. websites and apps. Between 2009 and 2010, it moved to block Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Between 2018 and 2019, it instituted bans on Reddit and Wikipedia.

The latest move by regulators comes amid an official backlash against ChatGPT. On Monday, state-owned media outlet China Daily said in a post on Weibo, China’s heavily censored equivalent of Twitter, that the chatbot “could provide a helping hand to the U.S. government in its spread of disinformation and its manipulation of global narratives for its own geopolitical interests.”

Sources in the tech industry say they are not surprised by such a clampdown.

“Our understanding from the beginning is that ChatGPT can never enter China due to issues with censorship, and China will need its own versions of ChatGPT,” said one executive from a leading tech company.

An executive from another leading Chinese tech player said that even without a direct warning his company would not make use of ChatGPT.

“We have already been a target of the Chinese regulator [amid the tech industry crackdown in recent years], so even if there were no such ban, we would never take the initiative to add ChatGPT to our platforms because its responses are uncontrollable,” the person said. “There will inevitably be some users who ask the chatbot politically sensitive questions, but the platform would be held accountable for the results.”

Since ChatGPT took the tech world by storm, Chinese tech giants, including Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, have rushed to unveil their own plans for developing ChatGPT-like services. These companies have been cautious about wording their announcements, however, with all of them stressing that their services are ChatGPT-like but do not integrate ChatGPT itself.

OpenAI, Alibaba, Tencent and Ant Group did not immediately respond to Nikkei Asia’s request for comment.