AI Development and the ‘Fuzzy Logic' of Chinese Cyber Security and Data Laws

Explains the rapid rise of China's innovation system and provides a roadmap for the prospects of China's AI development.

Max Parasol (Author)

9781316513361, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2021

340 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.9 cm, 0.763 kg

'a timely, insightful and well-researched contribution to the literature on China and technology … Parasol's fascinating book is likely to find its way onto postgraduate reading lists and presents ideas and hypotheses that can be tested and expanded in future scholarship.' Tim Stevens, The China Quarterly

The book examines the extent to which Chinese cyber and network security laws and policies act as a constraint on the emergence of Chinese entrepreneurialism and innovation. Specifically, how the contradictions and tensions between data localisation laws (as part of Network Sovereignty policies) affect innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). The book surveys the globalised R&D networks, and how the increasing use of open-source platforms by leading Chinese AI firms during 2017–2020, exacerbated the apparent contradiction between Network Sovereignty and Chinese innovation. The drafting of the Cyber Security Law did not anticipate the changing nature of globalised AI innovation. It is argued that the deliberate deployment of what the book refers to as 'fuzzy logic' in drafting the Cyber Security Law allowed regulators to subsequently interpret key terms regarding data in that Law in a fluid and flexible fashion to benefit Chinese innovation.

Part I. Historical and Doctrinal Background: 1. Innovating in china's entrepreneurial ecosystem
2. The extent of fuzzy logic: the tech giants and their 'illegal' legal structure
3. China's cyber policies: conflict between innovation and restriction
4. China's data security policies leading to the cyber security law
5. The cyber security law: fuzzy logic in a touchstone law
Part II. Impact on Artificial Intelligence: 6. the impacts of data localisation on globalised ecosystems and Chinese tech development
7. How fuzzy provisions in the cyber security law protect data but not data privacy: 'data protection shall not hinder AI'
8. Why the current state of AI research is perfectly suited to China's fuzzy logic system
9. Open-source Ai platforms and the cyber security law
Conclusion — effect of data localisation on Chinese AI innovation.

Subject Areas: Artificial intelligence [UYQ], Technology: general issues [TB], Impact of science & technology on society [PDR], Philosophy of science [PDA], IT & Communications law [LNQ], E-commerce law [LNCB2], International law of transport, communications & commerce [LBD], Law & society [LAQ]