Chinese bypass ChatGPT ban through marketplaces since 2023

An amazing story of technological underground is unfolding in China. Where users invent increasingly sophisticated ways to access global artificial intelligence systems despite strict restrictions.

Since 2023, ChatGPT and related services have been officially blocked in China. And access distributors face not only administrative responsibility but also imprisonment. However, Chinese technological underground demonstrates astounding ingenuity!

A real guerrilla war with censors has unfolded on popular marketplaces like Taobao. Until recently, access to banned neural networks was sold under the guise of “books” at symbolic prices from 10 cents to 1.5 dollars. Simply to initiate contact with the seller for further negotiations.

When censors uncovered this tactic, the community instantly adapted! Now veiled references are used in product names: model version numbers, encrypted creator names, modified Communist Party slogans and even “decorations” with special descriptions.

Interestingly, Chinese authorities concentrate attention predominantly on ChatGPT. According to Oxford Chinese Policy Laboratory researcher Zilan Qian, these models “pose no threat since they don’t spread political propaganda, and their responses depend entirely on users’ own queries”.