Close Menu

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    How to Use ClickUp: Full ClickUp Tutorial

    June 16, 2025

    How to Fight Like a ‘Ballerina’

    June 16, 2025

    Frosteam All-in-One Facial Spa with a Facial Steamer, Ice Bath, and Aromatherapy Diffuser in One » Gadget Flow

    June 16, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    AI News First
    Trending
    • How to Use ClickUp: Full ClickUp Tutorial
    • How to Fight Like a ‘Ballerina’
    • Frosteam All-in-One Facial Spa with a Facial Steamer, Ice Bath, and Aromatherapy Diffuser in One » Gadget Flow
    • Acefast Acefit Air Review: Sleek Style, Solid Substance
    • A New Obesity Pill May Burn Fat Without Suppressing Appetite
    • Laptop Buying Guide (2025): How to Choose the Right PC (Step-by-Step Guide)
    • Spiraling with ChatGPT | TechCrunch
    • How Covid-19 Changed Hideo Kojima’s Vision for ‘Death Stranding 2’
    • Home
    • AI News
    • AI Apps

      How to Use ClickUp: Full ClickUp Tutorial

      June 16, 2025

      What Is A Postgraduate Degree?

      June 15, 2025

      What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

      June 15, 2025

      Types of Project Management: Methodologies and Examples

      June 14, 2025

      40+ Quality Assurance Manager Interview Questions and Answers

      June 13, 2025
    • Tech News
    • AI Smart Tech
    AI News First
    Home » A Chinese AI video startup appears to be blocking politically sensitive images
    AI News 0

    A Chinese AI video startup appears to be blocking politically sensitive images

    0April 22, 2025
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    A China-based startup, Sand AI, has released an openly licensed video-generating AI model that’s garnered praise from entrepreneurs like Microsoft Research Asia founding director Kai-Fu Lee. But Sand AI appears to be censoring images that might raise the ire of Chinese regulators from the hosted version of the model, according to TechCrunch’s testing.

    Earlier this week, Sand AI announced Magi-1, a model that generates videos by “autoregressively” predicting sequences of frames. The company claims the model can generate high-quality, controllable footage that captures physics more accurately than rival open models.

    👀 You won’t believe this is AI-generated
    🧠 You won’t believe it’s open-source
    🎬 You won’t believe it’s FREE

    Magi-1 video model just humiliated commercial video tools

    Details and examples below: 👇 pic.twitter.com/zlXRecWeqH

    — Farhan (@mhdfaran) April 21, 2025

    Magi-1 is too impractical to run on most consumer hardware. It’s 24 billion parameters in size, and requires between four and eight Nvidia H100 GPUs to run. (Parameters are the internal variables models use to make predictions.) For many users — this reporter included — Sand AI’s platform is the only place they can test drive Magi-1.

    The platform needs a “prompt” image to kick off video generation. Not all prompts are permissible, TechCrunch quickly discovered. Sand AI blocks image uploads of Xi Jinping, Tiananmen Square and Tank Man, the Taiwanese flag, and insignias supporting Hong Kong liberation. Filtering appears to be happening at the image level; renaming image files didn’t skirt the blocking.

    Sand AI Magi-1
    Sand AI’s online platform throws an error message when it detects a likely prohibited imageImage Credits:Sand AI

    Sand AI isn’t the only Chinese startup preventing uploads of politically sensitive images to its video generation tool. Hailuo AI, Shanghai-based MiniMax’s generative media platform, blocks photos of Xi Jinping as well. But Sand AI’s filtering appears to be particularly aggressive; Hailuo allows images of Tiananmen Square.

    As Wired explained in a piece from January, models in China are required to follow stringent information controls. A 2023 law forbids models from generating content that “damages the unity of the country and social harmony” — that is, counters the government’s historical and political narratives. To comply, Chinese startups often censor their models, either through prompt-level filters or fine-tuning.

    Interestingly, while Chinese models tend to block political speech, they often have fewer filters than their American counterparts for pornographic content. 404 recently reported that a number of video generators released by Chinese companies lack basic guardrails that prevent people from generating nonconsensual nudity.



    Source link

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    Related Posts

    Spiraling with ChatGPT | TechCrunch

    June 16, 2025

    The AI execution gap: Why 80% of projects don’t reach production

    June 15, 2025

    Google reportedly plans to cut ties with Scale AI

    June 15, 2025
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Editors Picks
    Top Reviews
    Advertisement
    Demo
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest Vimeo YouTube
    • Home
    • Privacy Policy
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Disclaimer
    © 2025 AI News First

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.