Measuring DNS Censorship of Generative AI Platforms

TL;DR

This paper investigates how DNS-based measurements reveal the extent and patterns of censorship against Generative AI platforms in different countries, highlighting China's prominent role and inconsistencies in Russia.

Contribution

It introduces a novel DNS measurement approach to monitor AI platform censorship and compares results with existing measurement platforms, revealing gaps in data coverage.

Findings

China is a leading country of AI censorship.

Not all AI domains are censored in China.

Inconsistencies exist in Russia's censorship process.

Abstract

Generative AI is an invaluable tool, however, in some parts of the world, this technology is censored due to political or societal issues. In this work, we monitor Generative AI censorship through the DNS protocol. We find China to be a leading country of Generative AI censorship. Interestingly, China does not censor all AI domain names. We also report censorship in Russia and find inconsistencies in their process. We compare our results to other measurement platforms (OONI, Censored Planet, GFWatch), and present their lack of data on Generative AI domains.