"The" Social Credit System
The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) has been discussed a lot in Western media. However, we do not know currently how the system that is supposed to take nationwide effect by 2020 will look like, as there are more than 70 pilot projects currently undertaken. These pilots rank from commercial royalty and rewards programs (Sesame Credit) to an Orwellian system, where each action has a predetermined associated score (Rongcheng). In-between, there’s nebulous algorithmic systems that basically act as a Black Box (Honesty Shanghai). This talk, therefore, looks at some of these pilots and their implementation details, and through an agent-based modeling framework, discusses the likely effects of different implementations. In doing so, it shows that most of the systems currently being tested are prone to manipulation by leaders from all levels of government, and that the ostensible goal of allocating scarce resources more efficiently is unlikely to be served by the new system(s).