From Business Insider: 2024-04-11 01:33:00

OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla warned in an op-ed for the Financial Times that TikTok can be used as an “AI-powered subversion weapon” by the Chinese Communist Party. He advocated for the forced divestiture of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Congress passed a bill to ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance didn’t comply.

Khosla accused China of double standards, noting that Chinese children have stricter limits on the Douyin platform. He likened TikTok to “spinach for Chinese kids” and “fentanyl” for US citizens, programmable by the CCP. Khosla emphasized the importance of preventing a foreign adversary from controlling a platform that could influence US citizens.

Surveys show that 60% of Americans view TikTok as a threat to national security. The US intelligence community reported that Chinese propaganda actors used TikTok to target GOP and Democratic candidates during the 2022 midterm elections. Concerns about TikTok’s potential to influence US citizens and elections have raised national security alarms.

Representatives for the Chinese foreign ministry and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Opinions about the platform’s security risks are mixed, with Khosla and many Americans expressing concerns about its potential manipulation by foreign entities. The ongoing debate over TikTok’s role as a national security threat continues to spark discussions and calls for action.



Read more at Business Insider: TikTok Is China’s ‘AI-Powered Subversion Weapon,’ Says OpenAI Investor