Maybe you’re thinking: “I’m already fully stocked with the Xi Jinping Thought and don’t need more, thanks.”
You don’t. Still, if you do ever find yourself running low, a ready supply will soon be available in the form of one of the horrific AI chatbots all the rage these days.
Xi Jinping Thought GPT is what the Cyberspace Administration of China, which came up with the bot, is calling it. Presumably, when you ask it something, the answer it chugs out will conform fully to Xi Jinping Thought. If you ask it “What does Xi Jinping think about such-and-such,” you will presumably get an exact report as long as the subject is something that Xi Jinping has mentioned in his speeches and treatises (all drafted by bots well versed in Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism With Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, luckily).
Not everyone is enthusiastic. The Elblog.pl site says that in discussions in Western media, concerns have emerged about the implications of Xi Jinping Thought GPT for freedom of expression. The chatbot “could establish an authoritative template for acceptable discourse” in such a way that “technology meant to humanize communication could establish an authoritative template for acceptable discourse.”
However, according to China, people don’t need to be worried about freedom of expression in China except insofar as they want to say or hear things that the Chinese Communist Party does not want them to say or hear.
We musn’t forget China’s “rule of law.” Indeed, the incantatory power of the phrase “rule of law” permeates China’s entire system, as CCP officials are glad to tell you. For example, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Chen Xu, has said that the freedom of expression of the Chinese people “is fully protected in our law. China is a country with rule of law.” Of course, on the other hand, “Freedom of expression can never be a pretext” to put anyone above the law.
And China’s law, which is whatever the government and the dictator say it is, says that you better not express things or attend to expressions of things against the wishes of the rulers. Them’s the rules. Hence, rule of law. Possibly, access to the Xi Jinping Thought GPT will make conformity to the relevant strictures and limits easier than ever.