Certain ChatGPT access services have been restricted in mainland China, raising concerns that the Chinese government may be attempting to restrict the popularity of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.
China has for a long time used the Great Firewall, the world's biggest and most sophisticated censorship system, to prevent access to Google, Facebook, and other popular sites on the mainland. These limits have helped Chinese tech firms thrive at home by protecting them from outside rivals.
Is this the future of ChatGPT and other AI-powered chatbot platforms in China?
Suspended Services
Since the launch, hundreds of public accounts have appeared on Tencent's messaging and social media app WeChat, incorporating ChatGPT through an application programming Interface (API) that allows two software programs to speak with one another.
Without a foreign phone number or virtual private network (VPN), mainland users were able to access ChatGPT using these WeChat accounts even though the local government blocked the service. However, investigations by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday, Feb. 22, found that some of them, including Yibai Technology, ChatGPTRobot, Shenlan BL, and AI Duihua, had been deactivated.
An activation button for ChatGPT has been disabled by Yibai Technologies. While the mini-program used by ChatGPTRobot has been terminated for violating applicable rules and regulations.
Separately over the weekend, Shenlan BL and AI Duihua informed their respective user bases that access to ChatGPT had been unavailable for unknown reasons. As of Wednesday afternoon, they had encouraged customers to switch to new public accounts that provided the same functionality.
There have been reports of others having similar experiences.
One anonymous source of SCMP said that WeChat had deactivated his personal account three days after he had integrated a ChatGPT API. He said that WeChat had warned him he could not reclaim his account unless he made a pledge to never "arbitrarily" integrate APIs in it again.
Local Government vs. ChatGPT
According to a story published by the now-deleted 21st Century Business Herald on Tuesday, Feb. 21, Chinese officials have ramped up their investigations into ChatGPT. Apparently, they seek to shut down domestic proxies providing access to ChatGPT.
Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday that Chinese regulators had ordered Tencent and Ant Group, the financial technology arm of Alibaba, to stop providing ChatGPT services on their platforms.
DingTalk, Alibaba's workplace collaboration platform, has removed a user guide from earlier this month that detailed how to integrate a ChatGPT bot into existing conversations.
Two operators with live ChatGPT proxy accounts on WeChat reported receiving no special notifications from the program. However, one of them said authorities had instructed them not to talk to the media.
San Francisco-based startup OpenAI released AI-driven ChatGPT last year in November. It went viral and hit 100 million monthly active users in early January.
