By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 9 Oct: China’s development of DeepZang, a Tibetan-language artificial intelligence model, has taken an explicitly political turn, with its founder pledging to advance the technology to promote state-directed ethnic integration. The announcement has brought into sharper focus concerns over how artificial intelligence could extend Chinese colonial control over Tibet into the digital sphere.

Speaking at a seminar on 5 October in Hohhot, in Southern Mongolia under Chinese rule, DeepZang founder Tenzin Norbu said the model would be further developed to promote “ethnic interaction and integration,” according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing Chinese state media. The statement explicitly links the model’s development to Beijing’s ethnic integration agenda. While the technology was initially presented primarily in terms of its t...