Content security refers to the protection of information content and that the information content meets the requirements at political, legal, and moral levels. The recent development of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a very important impact on content security. In this article, we summarize the research status and development trends of AI-based content security in China and abroad based on the major strategic demand therefor, and presents the key technical issues regarding AI-based content security. This study proposes to build the world’s leading AI-based content security system through a three-step strategy. Innovation and breakthroughs should be made in areas such as adversarial machine learning, explainable AI, hybrid enhanced intelligence, and knowledge-driven content security. Meanwhile, the construction of policies, regulations, and regulatory mechanisms should be emphasized. Furthermore, major content security infrastructure such as cyber ranges for content attack and defense and large-scale social system simulation devices for public opinion attack and defense should be established.