China planning algorithm to control religions vs Magnifica Humanitas
While Leo XIV raises the question of freedom in the age of data science, China's National Religious Affairs Administration publishes an article about a new computing centre at Southeast University tasked with using generative artificial intelligence to uncover (and ban) any ideas that diverge from what the Party wants religions to say.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool that can improve the "efficiency" of governance over religious activities in China. From now on, the latter will no longer be limited to blocking only certain "sensitive words" that appear online. Thanks to new models developed specifically for social media platforms, it will become far easier to block any content that does not align with the political vision of religions of "new-era socialism”, protecting it from any “foreign influence”.
Just as the world is debating the issues raised by Pope Leo XIV in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, the WeChat account Weiyan Zongjiao, the official mouthpiece of the National Religious Affairs Administration (NRAA), recently posted an article published in the latest issue of its magazine Religions of China.
The authors are Prof Wang Qilong and researcher Sun Xiaoli, identified as heads of a new academic institution, the Centre for Intelligent Computing of Religious Information in Asia, Africa, and Europe at Southeast University, formerly the National Nanking University, Jiangsu province.
The article essentially describes the activities of the new centre, which is presented as a cutting-edge facility in providing the public administration with new tools for religious governance in China.
This fact in itself is emblematic: Southeast University boasts a well-established School of Foreign Languages, one of its flagship institutions. Its website refers to it as a "bridge between cultures," noting that the first English teacher training programme in China was launched here in 1917.
The centre was set up at the university to use the most advanced applications of AI to linguistics science in order to "filter" religious content so that it becomes virtually impossible to encounter interpretations of religious experience that are not in line with the vision imposed by Xi Jinping on every community in China.
Ensuring compliant content
These are not our conclusions, but what is explicitly stated in the article. "The governance of religious affairs, as an important component of state governance," the two academics write, outlining the situation, "has seen its management scenarios constantly expand with the development of Internet technologies, while governance challenges continue to increase.
"Problems such as the latent ideological risks in religious content generated by large national language models, the increasing diversification of online dissemination of illegal religious information, and the insufficiency of grassroots religious governance resources have become critical issues hindering the modernisation of religious affairs management.”
It is at this level that the new facility at Southeast University wants to intervene. “The computing centre considers the regulation of the generation and dissemination of religious information and the strengthening of risk prevention capabilities as central objectives, developing targeted technologies and regulatory studies to promote the responsibility of Internet companies and consolidate the first line of defence for the security of online religious information.”
The article goes into detail on the working methods they want to adopt, creating "an authoritative and high-quality linguistic database in the religious field, based on a unified political position and ideological orientation,” Sun Xiaoli and Wang Qilong explain.
“Through a systematic review of major religious issues with implications for political and social stability, a clearly oriented and standardised reference question-and-answer system is developed, correcting from the outset misconceptions of history, ethnicity, and religion, as well as opinions considered to be an expression of foreign infiltration, ensuring that artificial intelligence produces consistent content on religious issues.”
“The sinicisation of religions in China, the principle of independence and self-management of religions, and the relationship between state law and religious norms,” they add, “are integrated into the training system, promoting the use of large-scale language models as a permanent channel for policy interpretation and ideological orientation.”
The objective is all too clear: "The integration of these technologies into the platforms' standard content security mechanisms”. This “allows us to move from simple keyword filtering to comprehensive and precise semantic evaluation, and from post-dissemination emergency interventions to preventive early warning systems.
“This strengthens the responsibility of Internet platforms and effectively limits the spread of illegal missionary activities, extremist religious information, and content considered an expression of foreign religious infiltration, contributing to the ongoing purification of the online religious space.”
Towards the end of the article, it is also explained that this will “compensate for the lack of personnel and professional skills in the basic structures responsible for managing the Internet, while also homogenising standards for handling harmful online information.”
In other words, NRAA’s “diligent officials" will be effectively able to reach everywhere and with the same ideological rigour, without unpleasant “flexibilities” from province to province.
Magnifica Humanitas’ opposite perspective
That Chinese authorities are using AI as a tool of social control is certainly not surprising, but what is striking in this article is how it is laid out as a programme, a way of saying: from now on, no single religious message will be able to escape the control of the Chinese Internet.
The fact that Magnifica Humanitas was released about the same time as the article is probably mere coincidence, but it does help to grasp the gap between Pope Leo XIV's view of AI and China’s.
In the encyclical, the pontiff openly raises the issue of freedom in the face of technological tools and the importance of keeping one's heart open to questions. He quotes Plato to say that, “the deepest and most important things are learned only after much time and effort, by engaging in discussion with others, ‘striking upon’ ideas and experiences together like flint until the spark of understanding is kindled within us.”
In the encyclical, Leo also urges protection for young people “from the promise of the perfect machine, from that subtle temptation which renders human thought seemingly superfluous precisely when it is most needed” (Magnifica Humanitas, 140). This is the exact opposite of NRAA’S plan of controlling religions, which a university in Jiangsu is programming via AI.
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