China slams Japan's right-wing forces over AI distortion of WWII

China's Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned Japanese right-wing forces for using manipulated historical data to distort the history of World War II through AI models.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a press conference in response to reports that Japan's right-wing forces had been making continuous efforts to tamper with WWII history by entering adulterated data into mainstream AI models, some of which produced outputs with a clearly misguided view of history.

Examples cited in the question include referring to the July 7 Incident as a "clash" between Japanese and Chinese troops, the Nanjing Massacre as the "Fall of Nanjing" and Japan's aggression against Southeast Asia as "interest" in the region's resources.

Japan committed ironclad and undeniable crimes during militarist aggression, Mao said.

"Using new technologies to poison the data is the latest method by Japanese right-wing forces to distort and glorify Japan's war history.

The aim is to embed a wrong perception of WWII history and misguide public opinion so that Japan can break free from the postwar pacifist constraint and accelerate remilitarization," she added.

She said AI should be used for the positive and for good, not for tampering with historical facts and whitewashing war crimes.

"The covert moves of Japanese right-wing forces greatly hurt the sentiments of Japan's war victims and constitute a blatant affront to human conscience.

The international community must stay on high alert and push back those moves," Mao said.