鸿门宴
中国消费者协会观点：人工智能服务非万能 消费使用需谨防误导,中国消费者协会观点：人工智能服务非万能 消费使用需谨防误导_我的网站
A | A piece of cotton fabric, an AI supply-chain map, a "human rights" report and an electronics certification document appear to have little in common.
Behind them, however, are the US entities that have helped build and operate Washington's machinery of restrictions against China - tracing materials linked to Xinjiang region, mapping supply chains for enforcement, producing reports used to advance "forced labor" allegations, converting those allegations into corporate compliance pressure, and lobbying to exclude Chinese laboratories from the US market.
On August 5, China responded.
China's Ministry of Commerce announced the countermeasures against Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., Stratum Reservoir, LLC., Altana Technologies, Inc., Responsible Business Alliance, Verite Group, Inc. and Human Rights in China, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
These countermeasures, which took effect on Wednesday, were adopted in response to the US sanctions against Chinese companies under the pretext of "forced labor" in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to the ministry.
In a separate decision, Compliance Testing LLC was listed over its support for restrictive measures taken by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to Xinhua. Compliance Testing LLC assisted and supported the FCC in taking these measures, which endanger China's sovereignty, security and development interests.
Chinese organizations and individuals are prohibited from conducting relevant transactions or cooperation with these entities.
Public filings and company disclosures point to a more complicated picture: The seven US entities listed by China occupy different points along a chain extending from research and laboratory testing to AI-powered supply-chain mapping and compliance services, while some have changed their core business or retained operations linked to China.
Who are these entities, who pays them and what exactly have they done to Chinese companies? GT found more behind the names through an investigation into corporate filings, government contracts, funding records and public statements.
The path from the US government's Xinjiang-related allegations to enforcement actions runs through laboratory testing, supply-chain data and algorithmic screening. Three of the entities targeted by China's latest countermeasures have served as "hired guns" along that path.
Back to May 2024, Applied DNA Sciences and Stratum Reservoir drew international attention with a study of 822 cotton-containing products collected from major retailers and e-commerce platforms between February 2023 and March 2024. According to Reuters, 19 percent contained traces of cotton from Xinjiang region. Among the positive samples presented as having a single origin, 57 percent were labeled as containing only US cotton. The two companies declined to identify the retailers and brands involved.
But the test itself identifies a probable geographical origin: It does not examine recruitment, wages or conditions at a workplace. Those geographical findings acquire legal consequences through the US' prevention act on "forced labor" in Xinjiang, under which goods produced wholly or partly in Xinjiang face a rebuttable presumption.
According to an Applied DNA announcement republished by NASDAQ, the company received a subcontract from LRQA (Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance) in 2024 for an isotopic-testing pilot involving Pakistan's cotton sector. Under the subcontract, Applied DNA and its traceability partner Isotech, a Stratum Reservoir company, were to conduct isotopic testing and analysis. The pilot formed part of the US Department of Labor-funded Global Trace Protocol project, whose overall budget was $4 million.
By the time China announced its countermeasures, however, Applied DNA had undergone a striking corporate transformation. A May 2026 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission identifies the company as BNB Plus Corp, formerly Applied DNA Sciences, and describes it primarily as a digital-asset treasury company holding BNB cryptocurrency. The filing says it stopped providing textile isotopic-testing services during the previous fiscal year and was exiting its DNA tagging and security business.
The same filing recorded a net loss of $25.27 million for the six months ending March 31, 2026, as well as an accumulated deficit of $404.45 million.
Stratum Reservoir followed a different path into cotton traceability. The company was formerly the laboratory-services arm of oilfield-services group Weatherford. In 2019, Weatherford sold the business to an investor group led by CSL Capital for $206 million in cash, according to the Weatherford's website.
Stratum's own company profile still centers on reservoir characterization and laboratory analysis of rocks and fluids. Through Isotech, however, expertise developed for analyzing natural resources was extended to cotton-origin testing.
According to an Applied DNA announcement republished by NASDAQ, Applied DNA and Stratum Reservoir's Isotech division signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2021 to use isotopic analysis as a confirmatory test for determining cotton origin.
If Applied DNA and Stratum work from physical samples, Altana Technologies operates at the level of data networks.
In 2023, Altana announced that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had awarded it a multi-year contract to provide what the company called a "foundational map of the global supply chain." Its Atlas platform applies artificial intelligence to public, non-public and proprietary data.
According to Altana's announcement, thousands of Customs and Border Protection users would be able to conduct network analysis, screen value chains and compile evidence supporting enforcement actions.
That government relationship continued to expand. Records from the US government show that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Altana another contract in July 2026, with nearly $7.5 million obligated for a forced-labor tool and trade-compliance modules through June 2029.
Altana's personnel structure further reflects its focus on government enforcement. Its leadership page lists government affairs chief Scott Friedman as a former DHS assistant secretary for trade and economic security. Its advisory board includes a former CBP commissioner and several former customs, intelligence and national security officials.
Altana also markets compliance services to companies facing the same enforcement system. In joint promotional material, Altana and Kharon say CBP analysts use their platforms to enforce the US forced labor import ban framework, while businesses can screen shipments through the "exact lens" used by regulators - placing Altana on both the enforcement and corporate-compliance sides of the market.
Together, the three companies illustrate how a technical chain can acquire enforcement power: A laboratory assigns a probable origin to a physical sample; a data platform connects companies, products and shipments across borders; government agencies use those findings to prioritize investigations or support enforcement.
Roles in a false narrative chain
"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth" is a maxim of propaganda often attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. In the US' fabrication of the false narrative of "forced labor" in Xinjiang region and its effort to construct a complete chain of policies aimed at suppressing China, certain actors have repeatedly spread lies that smear China through softer means such as agenda-setting, report manufacturing, industry standard-setting and rule-based lobbying.
Among the seven US entities countered by China's Ministry of Commerce this time, some have played precisely such a role.
"Human Rights in China (HRIC)" is likely one of the key actors directly supplying the "ammunition" in this chain. Based in New York and long active on Xinjiang-related accusations, the NGO has even funneled disinformation, acting as a lobbyist and relentlessly pushing for the passage of more restrictive anti-China legislation, the Global Times found.
For years, HRIC's website has published large volumes of disinformation and allegations of "human rights abuses" targeting Xinjiang region, including the content that was plainly fabricated. The organization has also long maintained close ties with certain parts of the US government. In an early transcript of a Joint House and Senate hearing from February 2002, the Global Times found there were extensive sections detailing HRIC's "recommendations" to the US government's "Congressional-Executive Commission on China," including, but not limited to, exploiting the human rights narrative to urge the US government to adopt restrictive regulations and rules targeting "China's WTO accession obligations" and the "Beijing Olympics 2008."
US labor-rights nonprofit Verite played the role of a fabricator of "evidence." This organization was once invited by the Switzerland-based Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) to join an investigation into whether "forced labor" was being used in cotton-related industries in the Xinjiang region. The budget for the project was $88,200, including $51,950 for Verite US headquarters and $18,250 for the Shenzhen Verite, a company affiliated to the organization, the Global Times learned.
However, there was no record in the Shenzhen Verite's financial reimbursement records of any employee going to Xinjiang to conduct a field survey on this BCI project. Worse still, employees from Shenzhen Verite told the Global Times that they did not go to Xinjiang for field surveys when putting together the draft report, but relied on online materials. They even referred to a report by the infamous anti-China "scholar" Adrian Zenz on "forced labor" in Xinjiang. Clearly, Verite's "investigation" was in fact a performance serving anti-China political purposes.
The next step in the fabrication chain of false narratives about China is to turn accusations into enforceable industry standards. The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) has likely played a pivotal role in that process.
As a global coalition of major electronics companies, the RBA's Validated Assessment Program (VAP) and Responsible Labor Initiative (RLI) are widely regarded as gold-standard benchmarks for supplier screening by many multinational corporations. Yet on Xinjiang-related issues, RBA has allegedly issued supply-chain compliance guidance grounded in a predetermined position, indirectly aligning itself with US sanctions policy and pressuring many multinational firms to sever ties with China-linked industries.
Compliance Testing LLC took a more direct approach. In 2025, it called for Chinese laboratories to be banned from participating in US regulatory testing, arguing that the move would protect US' test labs and US engineer's jobs, the company's website showed. Its CEO, Michael Schafer, even declared on the website that "China is out."
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently took negative measures against China, including barring devices with components from Chinese firms, which severely infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
"Compliance Testing LLC assisted and supported the FCC in taking these measures, which endanger China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Xinhua reported on August 5. Compliance Testing LLC is a driving force behind the anti-China measures issued by the FCC, state broadcaster CCTV News said on August 9.
US' deepening 'China anxiety'
There is no evidence showing that the seven entities operate as a unified organization, and their businesses and methods differ widely. What has connected them is not organizational affiliation but function: They occupy different points in a broader system that turns Xinjiang-related allegations into technical tests, supply-chain data, corporate compliance pressure and, eventually, government action.
Applied DNA and Stratum provide tools for tracing the origin of raw materials; Altana maps supply chains for regulators and businesses; HRIC and Verite produce and circulate reports and allegations; the RBA carries such claims into corporate compliance practices; and Compliance Testing has lobbied the US government to restrict Chinese laboratories. Their roles are distinct, but these functions can reinforce one another as allegations move from advocacy and research into commercial screening and regulatory enforcement.
Chinese economist Bai Ming told the Global Times that, viewed together, the pattern resembles what he described as a "package deal," with different actors providing mutually reinforcing elements for accusations and sanctions against China.
"The ever-lengthening US trade restriction lists actually reflect the US' deepening 'China anxiety,'" Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Zhongguancun Modern Information Consumer Application Industry Technology Alliance, told the Global Times.
Gao Lingyun, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that in recent years, the US has frequently invoked the "forced labor" rhetoric to restrict and suppress Chinese enterprises and curb the country's industrial development. China's countermeasures, he said, are not indiscriminate but are precisely calibrated to respond to specific US actions, reflecting a balance between defending national interests and preserving openness to cooperation.
Xiang argued that unilateral restrictions will not strengthen the US economy but will raise costs for American companies.
"These measures are driven by industrial competition and fear of losing dominance in the coming era of embodied intelligence," he said. "But they will backfire, increase global supply-chain costs and hinder cooperation."
Gao noted that if the US government continues its discriminatory policies, China may take further action.
"A healthy China-US economic relationship requires mutual respect and equal benefit. Unilateral pressure and 'decoupling' will only raise costs on both sides and destabilize the global economy," he noted.
。 目前，以大语言模型为核心的生成式人工智能技术正加速融入消费生活各类场景。人工智能在提升消费便利和服务效率的同时，因信息生成具有一定不确定性，也可能出现信息不准确、表述不严谨、承诺与实际情况不一致等问题。例如，提供与实际不符的费率信息、作出难以兑现的赔付表述、提供片面或欠审慎的法律建议等，可能影响消费者判断和选择，甚至造成经济损失。 根据相关舆情和全国消协组织近期接收的相关投诉情况，人工智能服务引发的消费问题，在不同应用场景下具有不同特点。消费者日常接触的人工智能大体可分为两类：一类是面向公众的通用生成式人工智能服务，主要根据公开信息、模型训练数据和用户提问生成回答，一般不代表具体经营者的官方意见；另一类是经营者部署使用的人工智能客服工具，直接参与商品介绍、费用说明、活动解释、售后处理等经营服务环节。 一、通用生成式人工智能：应明确参考属性，防止误导消费决策 面向公众的通用生成式人工智能服务并非特定经营者的代言主体，其生成内容一般不能直接视为平台或商家的正式承诺，也不能替代合同约定及权威机构意见，主要发挥信息辅助和参考作用。实践中，一些通用生成式人工智能在消费咨询和维权辅助过程中，可能出现对消费者遭受的损失作出缺乏依据的兜底承诺，对诉讼结果作出过度确定性判断、提供错误的诉讼管辖等法律指引，甚至生成并不存在的款项缴存、案件办理等虚假信息。如果消费者对上述生成内容缺乏必要辨别，未通过经营者官方渠道、合同文本或者有关权威渠道进一步核实，可能据此作出错误的退费、维权、诉讼等决定，不仅影响正常消费决策和依法维权，还可能造成经济损失。《生成式人工智能服务管理暂行办法》明确规定，人工智能服务提供者应基于服务类型特点，采取有效措施，提升生成式人工智能服务的透明度，提高生成内容的准确性和可靠性。明确并公开其服务的适用人群、场合、用途，指导使用者科学理性认识和依法使用生成式人工智能技术。 中国消费者协会建议，面向公众的通用生成式人工智能服务提供者进一步强化重点场景风险提示和信息质量管理。在涉及金融理财、生活服务、维权决策等与消费者重要权益密切相关的场景中，应通过适当方式提示人工智能生成内容的局限性，提醒消费者对重要信息进一步核实；同时，持续优化模型准确性，完善内容审核、风险预警和纠错机制，提升答复质量，尽可能减少错误信息和容易引发误解的内容，降低消费者因过度依赖人工智能生成信息而遭受损失的风险。 二、经营者部署的人工智能客服：不能因技术介入弱化经营者责任 经营者自行部署的人工智能客服工具，是其经营服务链条的组成部分。实践中，一些人工智能客服可能出现价格费用说明与实际不一致、优惠活动规则解释不准确、重要限制条件提示不足等问题；在发生争议后，个别经营者还可能以“人工智能自动生成”“系统自动回复”等为由，与相关答复进行责任切割，逃避应承担的责任。上述问题容易使消费者对交易价格、费用构成和售后服务等产生错误认识，影响消费者的知情权和公平交易权。《消费者权益保护法》规定，消费者享有知悉其购买、使用的商品或者接受的服务的真实情况的权利。
B | 经营者对消费者就其提供的商品或者服务的质量和使用方法等问题提出的询问，应当作出真实、明确的答复。 中国消费者协会敦促部署人工智能客服工具的经营者加强审核和管理，确保人工智能客服提供的信息与商品服务实际情况、价格费用、活动规则、合同约定和售后政策保持一致，并提供便捷有效的人工客服和纠纷解决渠道。经营者利用人工智能提高经营服务效率的同时，应建立相应的责任承接机制；对于人工智能客服在经营服务过程中向消费者作出的涉及价格、费用、售后等重要答复，不能仅以“算法自动生成”等理由简单免责，更不能通过相关声明不合理减轻或者免除依法应承担的责任。 中国消费者协会呼吁有关部门进一步完善人工智能在消费领域应用的相关规范，结合不同服务类型和应用场景，进一步明晰服务提供者、经营者等主体的责任边界和治理要求，推动形成权责清晰、规范有序的人工智能消费服务环境。同时提醒广大消费者理性认识通用生成式人工智能的信息辅助和参考属性，对涉及价格费用、合同条款、售后服务、法律责任等重要消费信息，不宜仅依据人工智能生成内容作出决定，应通过经营者官方渠道、合同文本、监管部门及其他权威渠道进行核实确认。
Current article:http://thaanrq.dinggaxilianmaiyuejienianguai.shop/list_2u07w/swx.html
Published on:03:28:25
