China’s Latest AI Restrictions Target Scientific Research

China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has banned the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to “directly generate” research project applications in newly released guidelines that aim to better regulate the rapidly evolving technology and its potential threat to scientific integrity.

Researchers are also prohibited from listing generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, as co-authors of scientific papers and from directly using unverified references generated by AI, according to the guidelines published late last month.