On a misty Saturday afternoon in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a gaggle of teenage girls are sheltering from the drizzle under a concrete canopy. With their bags of crisps piled high in front of them, they crowd around a couple of smartphones to sing along to Mandopop ballads. The sound of their laughter rings out across the surrounding lawn – until it is pierced by a mechanical buzzing sound. Someone has ordered dinner. A few metres away from the impromptu karaoke session is an “airdrop cabinet”, one of more than 40…
Tag: Artificial intelligence (AI)
Nvidia’s CEO makes surprise visit to Beijing after US restricts chip sales to China
The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China. Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media. The official broadcaster China Central Television said Huang met Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, where he said he hopes “to continue to cooperate with…
No WhatsApp in China, no TikTok in the US, and the return of Llama
Another day, another set of troubles for Apple’s App Store. This time, the company had bowed to orders from the Chinese state to remove WhatsApp and Threads, two of the last Meta apps still available in the country. From our story: Apple confirmed it had withdrawn the two apps – both owned by Meta, also the owner of Facebook – under instruction from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which regulates and censors China’s highly restricted internet and online content. “The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps…
China will use AI to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea and India, Microsoft warns
China will attempt to disrupt elections in the US, South Korea and India this year with artificial intelligence-generated content after making a dry run with the presidential poll in Taiwan, Microsoft has warned. The US tech firm said it expected Chinese state-backed cyber groups to target high-profile elections in 2024, with North Korea also involved, according to a report by the company’s threat intelligence team published on Friday. “As populations in India, South Korea and the United States head to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber and…
Chinese mourners turn to AI to remember and ‘revive’ loved ones
As millions of people across China travel to the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects for the annual tomb-sweeping festival, a new way of remembering, and reviving, their beloved relatives is being born. For as little as 20 yuan (£2.20), Chinese netizens can create a moving digital avatar of their loved one, according to some services advertised online. So this year, to mark tomb-sweeping festival on Thursday, innovative mourners are turning to artificial intelligence to commune with the departed. At the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, the…
Ex-Google engineer arrested for alleged theft of AI secrets for Chinese firms
A Chinese software engineer has been arrested for allegedly stealing artificial intelligence technology from Google while secretly working for two Chinese companies. Linwei Ding, 38, also known as Leon Ding, faces four counts of theft of trade secrets, US attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement. Ding, who was arrested Wednesday in Newark, California, allegedly transferred confidential information from Google’s network to his personal account while secretly affiliated with Chinese-based companies in the AI industry. “The justice department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced…
Universal Music Group threatens to pull song catalog from TikTok in furious open letter
Universal Music Group’s agreement with TikTok is set to expire in the next 24 hours after the companies failed to agree on issues including artist compensation and AI, meaning some of the world’s most popular music – including Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and newly viral hit Murder on the Dancefloor – will be removed from TikTok’s library. In a blistering open letter titled “Why we must call Time Out on TikTok” published on Tuesday, UMG, the biggest music company in the world, accused TikTok of attempting to “bully” and “intimidate”…
In the race for AI supremacy, China and the US are travelling on entirely different tracks | Manya Koetse
Of the many events that stand out as noteworthy in online discussions across Chinese social media in 2023, it’s perhaps the rise of ChatGPT that will prove to be the most significant. Although the chatbot made by the US-based OpenAI was officially launched in late 2022, it took until 2023 for its unprecedented growth to raise eyebrows in China, where the government has set the goal of becoming the global AI leader by 2030. Over the past decade, the focus on AI in Chinese society and digital culture has grown.…
Nvidia to release three new AI chips for China after US restrictions – report
Nvidia is planning to release three new chips for China, according to local media reports, weeks after the US blocked it from selling two high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chips and one of its top gaming chips to Chinese firms. Nvidia could announce the chips – the HGX H20, L20 PCIe and L2 PCIe – as soon as 16 November, the Star Market Daily news outlet reported, citing people familiar with the matter Nvidia declined to comment when asked about the report. Last month, the US AI chip giant said new…
Chinese influencers using AI digital clones of themselves to pump out content
In September, Chen Yiru, a Taiwanese influencer with nearly nine million fans on Weibo, livestreamed footage of himself eating chicken feet for a jaw-grinding 15 hours. His followers were suitably wowed – until some started to question if such a feat was humanly possible. The small print on the video stream confirmed their suspicions: “For display purposes only, not a real person.” Many of Chen’s fans were outraged, and he reportedly lost more than 7,000 followers between 24 and 26 September. Even the legal community weighed in. Quoted in Chinese…