Subject: Surveillance

October 2025, Volume 36, Issue 4

China’s AI-Powered Surveillance State

The Chinese Communist Party is dreaming an authoritarian techno-dream that is a democrat’s nightmare: ever more fine-grained state control made possible by using AI networks to pry and spy everywhere. But human unpredictability remains a force the party-state cannot tame.

January 2024, Volume 35, Issue 1

The Real Dangers of Generative AI

Advanced AI faces twin perils: the collapse of democratic control over key state functions or the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of the few. Avoiding these risks will require new ways of governing.

October 2022, Volume 33, Issue 4

The Mandarin in the Machine

Beijing is bent on deploying mass surveillance to eliminate threats to its rule. It is terrifying—and the latest example of its determination to remold society.