China’s Supreme People’s Court has issued a guideline to address the misuse and abuse of artificial intelligence (AI), and bolster the protection of individuals’ rights in the digital age. This is the first set of judicial rules on the handling of AI-related cases to be released by the country’s top court. The 24-article document responds to hot-button issues that have stirred public debate over the past few years, including AI face-swapping, voice cloning and doxing, providing criteria for identifying those who use AI to infringe on rights and holding them accountable. According to the guideline, using someone’s voice without consent to create synthetic speech that mimics their timbre, tone and speaking style constitutes an infringement of their voice rights. Similarly, using AI to process a person’s name or likeness without permission to create and distribute a recognizable digital avatar is considered a violation of their right to name and likeness.
Zhou Jiahai, Director of the SPC’s Research Office, noted that the basic aim of the guideline is to balance development with security. “It strikes a balance between curbing AI abuses to strengthen judicial protection of people’s rights in the digital era, and supporting technological and industrial innovation to safeguard the healthy development of AI,” he said. Si Yanli, Deputy Director of the office, advocated a tolerant yet prudent approach to balancing the protection of these rights with the growth of the AI industry. However, she noted that tolerance should not be mistaken for permissiveness, nor should prudence be interpreted as acquiescence. “In practice, many people express their strong concerns about AI deepfakes. AI face-swapping technology can indiscriminately harvest anyone’s likeness, making ordinary people potential targets of deepfakes,” she said. “AI voice cloning technology can also ‘steal’ voices at a very low cost, with results that can be convincingly realistic.”
Si noted that these issues are key reasons behind the formulation of the guideline and underscore the need to standardize judicial practices across the country, a move that sends a clear message against the misuse of AI technologies that infringe on personality rights. While calling for an intensified crackdown on those using AI to infringe upon people’s name, voice and reputation rights, the guideline also calls for a stronger crackdown on doxing – the practice of obtaining and publicly disclosing others’ personal information online. “Doxing has emerged as a prominent form of cyberbullying, gravely violating victims’ privacy, disturbing their daily lives and eroding public security in cyberspace,” Si said, as reported by the China Daily.
