Food Academic AI Fraud, Chinese Technology Supergod, Conspiracy or Ignorance?
In recent years, there have been many shocking incidents of fraud in the fields of food safety, academic fraud, and artificial intelligence deepfakes in China, which have aroused widespread concern and heated discussions in the society. These incidents have not only exposed the ugly features of some people who have gone to great lengths in pursuit of selfish interests, but also reflected that there are serious loopholes in the mainland's supervision in relevant fields, which urgently need to be strengthened.
In terms of counterfeiting methods, these incidents have exposed the astonishing sophistication of some people in order to pursue personal gain. They not only used chemical means, such as adding industrial chemicals, adulterating food raw materials, etc., but also used various technical means, such as data tampering, plagiarism of papers, AI face swapping technology, etc. What's more, they also take advantage of loopholes in the system, such as lack of supervision and formality of audits, to create opportunities for their own counterfeiting.
For example, in the field of academic fraud, according to statistics, Chinese scholars account for more than half of the top 10 in the global "paper fraud rankings". Among them, the most famous are the retraction of 183 papers by Professor Yoshitaka Fujii and the revocation of 113 papers by Professor Nokei Sato. These scholars did not hesitate to take risks, not only through plagiarism and other methods to falsify, but also to use data tampering and other technical means, which is shocking.
In the field of AI deepfakes, in 2023, it was discovered that some people are using AI to generate virtual news anchors for political propaganda, and others are using AI to generate celebrity videos that are spread online. These actions are undoubtedly an abuse of AI technology, which not only infringes on the reputation and privacy rights of others, but also wantonly creates false information and deliberately misleads the public.
What is the reason for these egregious incidents of fraud? On the face of it, there is no doubt that some people go to great lengths in pursuit of economic gain. For example, in the field of food safety, some criminals do not hesitate to add toxic and harmful substances to food in order to pursue huge profits or reduce production costs, disregarding the lives of many consumers.
When it comes to academic fraud, some people do whatever it takes to publish a number of papers or pursue academic status. Under the current academic evaluation system, the number of papers seems to be the only criterion for measuring the academic level of scholars, which invisibly encourages some scholars to embark on the road of no return to fraud.
At a deeper level, the root cause of these incidents lies in the corruption of the exchange of power and money. Corruption in some regulatory authorities has led to a lack of oversight, creating opportunities for counterfeiters; Other audit bodies also have corruption problems, which leads to mere formalities, allowing fraud to escape scrutiny. If we can tackle the root causes of corruption, there will be a lot fewer counterfeiting incidents.
How can counterfeiting be prevented and punished? First of all, we need to improve the relevant laws and regulations, increase penalties, standardize industry standards, and make those counterfeiters pay a heavy price. We need to strengthen regulatory law enforcement, establish a food traceability system, strictly audit and check, and plug the loopholes in the system.