Xu Yangsheng, president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, recently said that “Rather than being merely a technological tool, artificial intelligence blends new ways of thinking, behavioral norms, and value judgments.” His message carries a lot of weight. It reminds us that AI offers not only opportunities, but also significant risks.

Most people in the first instance believe that AI is just a tool. We humans will use it to our advantage, given the values that we cherish. Xu was telling us that AI is changing our lifestyle and potentially reshaping our values. Humanity could be adversely affected if we are not mindful and allow AI to get the better of us.

AI is convenient and becoming extremely powerful. Given the human weaknesses that we all share, some of us will be tempted to use AI to cheat or to gain an unfair advantage, thereby hurting others. Even normally fair-minded people could convince themselves, “If I do not cross the line, others will.” Any “line” that had existed before could then be erased. The world will become more dangerous for everybody.

This is why maintaining the human spirit and ensuring proper governance in the use of AI are paramount. Without proper governance, honest people will get ripped off. The world would descend into chaos. Xu urged the younger generation to master AI tools, maintain independent thinking, stick to moral bottom lines, and embrace the digital era with reason, responsibility, and cultural sensitivity.

I have studied human nature for decades and have concluded that independent thinking is rare. In this age of AI, renowned philosopher Zhou Guoping’s reminder is most timely. He stressed that we must hold fast to humanistic warmth, moral judgment, and work incessantly to become a better human. Unfortunately, this cannot be taken for granted.

Happily, China is a true civilization state. This means that the Chinese civilization is widely shared and cherished by its people. Chinese civilization treasures the principle of self-cultivation or personal development. It is very liberal and not at all authoritarian. “The world is one family” (Book of Rites); “The sea accommodates all rivers”, “An enlightened person emulates the heavenly bodies in following their right paths” (I Ching); “First in priority is people, second is institutions, the emperor is the last” (Confucian philosopher Mencius); “Wisdom, benevolence, and courage are the three great virtues” (Book of Rites); “If mistakes have been made, have the courage to correct them” (Analects). Daoism is China’s homegrown religion, but Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam were welcome to China.

Some commentators believe the civilization state idea is authoritarian and rejects alternative ways of life. They do not know that China’s civilization is highly accommodating. In fact, a country that dispels alternative ways of life and tries to maintain one single culture and considers alternative ways of life inferior is not truly civilized. The human spirit is “colorblind”: There should be no discrimination because all humans should be respected as equals. This does not rule out that some ways of life in every civilization may be uncivilized and should not be allowed in the civilized world. Examples are slavery, human trafficking, discrimination based on gender, abuse of animals, and forgery.

China is a true civilization state. This means that the Chinese civilization is widely shared and cherished by its people. Chinese civilization treasures the principle of self-cultivation or personal development. It is very liberal and not at all authoritarian

Because the Chinese culture is attractive, it has been espoused by the non-Han emperors like Kangxi and Qianlong in the 17th and 18th centuries. These two Manchurian emperors were well versed in the Chinese classics and they were also skilled calligraphers. Kangxi reigned from 1661 to 1722, and was known for his accomplishments as a politician, scientist, calligrapher, and poet. Qianlong, who reigned from 1735 to 1796, was not only an accomplished poet, but also masterminded the encyclopedia called Siku Quanshu, which took 13 years to complete.

Chinese culture holds the human spirit as supreme, encourages learning and critical thinking (Analects: “learning without thinking makes one lose understanding; thinking without studying is dangerous”). Again, I Ching contains the advice “Virtue encompasses everything.” So Chinese culture is all about personal development. With strong personal development, one can hold steadfast to one’s humanity and well-developed virtues. Only then can we overcome our inclinations to cut corners and take advantage of the opportunities that AI can offer to do unethical things.

My attention was drawn to two lawsuits involving AI. One happened in China, the other was in the United States. Baidu — sometimes described as the “Google of China” — was charged with defamation based on AI hallucination. It posted news saying that a lawyer was charged for crimes that he never committed, and had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Baidu claimed that AI hallucinations cannot be detected in advance. Clearly this is not a valid excuse, because it hurts an innocent person.

Anthropic, a US AI firm, sued the US Department of War, claiming that Washington’s decision to blacklist it from government work violated its First Amendment rights. Anthropic wanted to block its Claude model from being used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons, but the US government wants to punish it for this.

These examples show that while proper governance is needed, enforcement will be challenging, unless we all uphold the human spirit.

The author is an honorary research fellow at the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University, and an adjunct professor at the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, the Education University of Hong Kong.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.