You know how sometimes things in movies are echoed in real life...?
China Aims A.I. at Predicting Who Could Pose a Political Risk
By Julian E. Barnes
New research examines how a Chinese company struggled to develop its predictive surveillance technology while U.S. restrictions were in place. A Chinese company has been trying to develop artificial intelligence-powered technology that would enable authoritarian governments to not just monitor dissidents but also potentially predict who could become one in the future.
The work, which appears to be in the research stage, is ripped out of dystopian science fiction, offering a glimpse of a world in which an authoritarian state is able to move against its citizens before they begin any public dissent...
Such technology, if perfected, would give authoritarian governments a powerful tool to use against perceived enemies. The idea that an authoritarian government would use artificial intelligence to suppress dissent is troubling enough. But the use of A.I. to predict dissent well before a person has taken action has become a nightmare scenario, according to some involved in the industry.
“This is what happens when mass surveillance meets A.I.,” said Brett J. Goldstein, the director of the Wicked Problems Lab at Vanderbilt’s Institute of National Security. “Without checks and balances, what China is doing to its own citizens is a preview of what becomes possible anywhere these tools go unchecked.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/us/politics/china-ai-predicting-dissent.html
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-hamilton-spectator/20260606/281921664726410?srsltid=AfmBOopuLxbpEDLeE4gGTmxHr74Jef1E_pk839jf0kPz2YCXYJ3Tqvsz