Data-Centric Authoritarianism: How China’s Development of Frontier Technologies Could Globalize Repression
Artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies that collect and analyze digital data are transforming how autocrats work to stifle dissent. Today, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) stands out for its quest to collect and leverage unprecedented types and volumes of data, from public and private sources and from within and beyond its borders, for social control. Thus, it is especially critical for civil society and democratic governments to identify effective, forward-looking strategies for confronting the spread of data-centric authoritarianism and mitigating its adverse impacts on human rights and democracy.