Essay: AI Lets Autocrats Cut Out Human Subordinates but Creates a New Dependence on Engineers
This Foreign Affairs essay, co-written by Bruce Schneier and Seva Gunitsky, argues that AI offers autocrats two things: real-time monitoring of subordinates and replacement of human intermediaries. Examples include RT's AI-generated anchors, China's Zero Trust AI system and smart city oversight, Russia's Oculus censorship system and Meliorator bot-persona tool, and the UAE's Regulatory Intelligence Office. The authors argue the "self-running state" is illusory, because a small group of engineers and data scientists whom rulers cannot evaluate must build and maintain these systems. That group becomes a new "Praetorian Guard" able to shape what the ruler sees, delay alerts or degrade feeds, and so strike deals with challengers. The piece is policy analysis and contains no incident, vulnerability or IOCs.
Technical Details
- China: AI-based performance tracking of local officials in Beijing and Shanghai. The Zero Trust AI system cross-referenced more than 150 government databases across about 30 counties and cities and flagged 8,700 officials before it was rolled back under pressure from those officials. Human Internet commentators are being replaced by bots, and the CCP is researching AI "thought management" and microtargeted propaganda.
- Russia: Moscow's facial recognition network of 200,000 cameras was used against protesters in 2021. The Oculus system, launched in 2023, scans hundreds of thousands of images per day for prohibited content. The security service's Meliorator tool created over a thousand fictitious American profiles, mainly on X.
- UAE: Autonomous AI agents are planned to take over half of federal government operations within two years.
- Roughly 100,000 specialists, about a tenth of Russia's tech workforce, left Russia in 2022 despite Kremlin inducements.
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Essay: AI Lets Autocrats Cut Out Human Subordinates but Creates a New Dependence on Engineers
ler a análise desta fonte ocultar
This Foreign Affairs essay, co-written by Bruce Schneier and Seva Gunitsky, argues that AI offers autocrats two things: real-time monitoring of subordinates and replacement of human intermediaries. Examples include RT's AI-generated anchors, China's Zero Trust AI system and smart city oversight, Russia's Oculus censorship system and Meliorator bot-persona tool, and the UAE's Regulatory Intelligence Office. The authors argue the "self-running state" is illusory, because a small group of engineers and data scientists whom rulers cannot evaluate must build and maintain these systems. That group becomes a new "Praetorian Guard" able to shape what the ruler sees, delay alerts or degrade feeds, and so strike deals with challengers. The piece is policy analysis and contains no incident, vulnerability or IOCs.
Technical Details
- China: AI-based performance tracking of local officials in Beijing and Shanghai. The Zero Trust AI system cross-referenced more than 150 government databases across about 30 counties and cities and flagged 8,700 officials before it was rolled back under pressure from those officials. Human Internet commentators are being replaced by bots, and the CCP is researching AI "thought management" and microtargeted propaganda.
- Russia: Moscow's facial recognition network of 200,000 cameras was used against protesters in 2021. The Oculus system, launched in 2023, scans hundreds of thousands of images per day for prohibited content. The security service's Meliorator tool created over a thousand fictitious American profiles, mainly on X.
- UAE: Autonomous AI agents are planned to take over half of federal government operations within two years.
- Roughly 100,000 specialists, about a tenth of Russia's tech workforce, left Russia in 2022 despite Kremlin inducements.