On Ly, ah Shanghai marketer in the hotel industry, for the first time suspected that a algorithm messed with her when she and a friend used the same ride-hailing app in one evening.
Wen’s friend, who booked a luxury car less often, saw a lower price for the same ride. Wen blamed the company’s algorithms, saying they wanted to squeeze more money from her.
Chinese ride-hailing companies say prices change due to fluctuating traffic. But some research and news report claims that apps can offer different rates based on factors including ride history and the phone a person is using. “I mean, come on — just admit you’re an internet company and this is what you do to make more profit,” says Wen.
On March 1, China will ban this type of algorithmic discrimination as part of what is possibly the world’s most ambitious effort to regulate artificial intelligence. Under the regulations, companies will be prohibited from using personal information to offer users different prices for a product or service.
The far-reaching rules include pricing algorithms, search results control, video recommendations, and content filtering. They will impose new curbs on major ride-hailing, ecommerce, streamingand social media companies.
The regulations will extend an unusual crackdown on China’s most popular and most valuable tech companies, including massive fines and scrapped stock offerings. “A number of unhealthy and disorderly signals and trends have occurred in the rapid development of our country’s digital economy,” said President Xi Jinping. in a speech in Octoberaccording to a translation of the Pekingnology newsletter.
Policymakers elsewhere are taking note. “I just attended a meeting with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning, and I was asked if China is doing what we are,” Rogier Creemers, an expert in Chinese law and governance at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “They’re moving incredibly fast.”
The regulations, known as Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation Management Termsedited by Cyberspace Administration of China, a powerful body that enforces rules on cybersecurity, internet censorship, and e-commerce. Among other things, they ban fake accounts, manipulate traffic, and promote addictive content. They also provide protections for delivery workers, motorbike taxi drivers and other gig workers.
Certain provisions are intended to resolve complaints about online services. For example, under the rules, companies would be prohibited from using personal characteristics to offer users different prices for a product; they will also be required to notify users and allow them to opt out, when the algorithms used to make recommendations.
Companies that break the rules could face fines, be banned from registering new users, have their business licenses revoked, or have their websites or apps shut down.
Some elements of the new regulation may prove difficult or unenforceable. For instance, it can be technically challenging to police the behavior of an algorithm that is constantly changing due to new input.
But the Chinese public seems to be largely in favor of measures to limit the power of the big tech platforms, on which they use services every day. Lillian Li, founder of Chinese technology publication Chinese characteristicscompares public sentiment about tech companies with Western surroundings for Facebook or Google, which offer great convenience at the expense of users’ personal data.
