China refuses anti-corruption system Zero Trust AI because of its high efficiency

China is trying to use high technology to solve many problems. This includes social interaction of citizens, their obedience to the law , compliance with the rules of communication in the network and much more.

Generally speaking, officials should manage the lives of citizens in China, but there are a lot of them. Officially, it is about 50 million people, according to estimates of public organizations - about 65 million. Only slightly less than the population of Great Britain. And someone must follow this army. The Chinese government decided to put technology to the benefit of the fatherland - a special kind of software platform was created to evaluate the activities of those in power.

For different categories of officials using different technologies. For example, a special AI platform was used for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, which allows assessing the risks of making certain decisions, including the interaction of the Middle Kingdom with the United States.

For ordinary citizens, a monitoring system is used that includes millions of cameras and data centers that analyze information from the "electronic eyes." Almost in real time, there is an identification of citizens with the allocation of those of them who are outlawed (for example, the criminal who is wanted).

The largest Chinese technology companies are developing effective solutions for the government and supplying equipment. One such company, ZTE, won a government contract to create a blockchain technology that allows you to save data of state importance intact - no one can change it without special access.

The policy of technologization is supported by officials from the highest echelons of power, including the head of China. He repeatedly stated the need to use a scientific and technical base (including artificial intelligence) to support the work of the government.

One of the systems developed relatively recently (implementation started in 2012) is called “Zero Trust”, its purpose is to search for corrupt officials with whom the Chinese government is carefully fighting. The system has access to 150 databases of state importance, which contain a lot of information about the work and social life of officials. Artificial intelligence processes this data and identifies inconsistencies that may indicate a violation of the law by those who are called upon to serve it.

“Zero trust” can determine strange transactions (for example, funds for the purchase of a car, transferred by an official, whose salary is clearly not consistent with the level of the vehicle), as well as track the connections of officials with each other. In addition, the same system estimates the value of land plots and houses owned by officials.

As it turned out, the system is very effective. Despite the fact that it works only in a couple of dozens of regions and cities, Zero Trust was able to detect 8721 offenders (or those whom the system considered as such). But after some time they decided to stop the work of the system, because it turned out to be too effective. And not only effective, but also problematic.

The fact is that the system pointed to the violator, but could not “tell” why this person is a corrupt official. To the investigation of each case had to attract a lot of people who did not always give an unambiguous conclusion. This kind of work can go on for months, and the law enforcement agencies do not have much time, they are also needed to work with other matters.

As a result, it was decided that the suspects would simply be warned. Militiamen contacted those pointed out by the car and advised them not to make mistakes in the future. Some particularly zealous corrupt officials were punished - many trials became known not only in China, but also abroad.

According to information provided by one of the employees of the system, it was decided to suspend its work, since the overwhelming majority of officials complained about the “pressure” they felt while working under supervision.

This is not surprising, since the "anti-corruption" with the AI ​​could connect to the satellite photo database in order to check if the road is really working on the specified road section or is it a lie.

The system still works in some regions, but only a few remain. The administration of the remaining settlements decided to disable the “Zero Trust”, and the reasons were different, including doubts about the legality of bot access to the closed government bases. Most likely, it will not be possible to deploy it on a national scale, since the opposition of officials is too great.