China’s race to develop smarter-than-human artificial intelligence may put it ahead of the U.S., but such ground-breaking technology could also risk lessening the stronghold that the ruling Communist Party has over the world’s second-largest economy. That’s the view of prominent AI scientist Max Tegmark, who told CNBC artificial general intelligence (AGI) is closer than we … Read more
China’s judges and prosecutors must pay more attention to solving conflicts and ensuring fairness rather than just closing cases, a senior judicial official said in a rare commentary, as authorities reflect on a string of mass killings in recent weeks. Wang Chengguo, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Zhejiang province, wrote in … Read more
China’s chip ambitions are being tested again as fresh US sanctions, the third escalation in three years, hit more broadly across the semiconductor supply chain, industry insiders said. The US Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, added 140 Chinese chip-related organisations to a trade blacklist and placed additional restrictions on China’s access to semiconductor manufacturing … Read more
China has fully lifted suspensions on Australian red meat, Canberra said Tuesday, dismantling one of the final barriers in a four-year trade war that hammered US$13 billion of exports. A slew of Australia’s most lucrative export commodities were effectively banned from China starting in 2020, as relations between the two nations started to fray. But … Read more
China’s health authorities have called for elderly people to be faithful to their partners and refrain from seeking prostitutes as the country attempts to combat a rise in Aids cases among its older population. Liu Yufen, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Aids prevention centre, said there was a … Read more
China’s far west region of Xinjiang is seeking closer ties and cross-border cooperation with Pakistan and Central Asian countries in a bid to counter US sanctions and consolidate its role as a gateway under the Belt and Road Initiative. Khunjerab port – the sole border crossing connecting China and Pakistan – in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous … Read more
Traditionally, 11.11, alongside the mid-year 6.18 shopping festival, has served as a key barometer for consumer confidence, which has become a focal point of China’s efforts to boost its slowing economy. But in the absence of official figures, analysts and media are left to interpret third-party data. E-commerce data firm Syntun, a popular reference point, … Read more
The platform developed by Tairex, a company set up in September under the university’s Institute for Al Industry Research (AIR), features 42 AI doctors covering 21 departments that include emergency, respiratory, paediatrics and cardiology, according to an AIR blog post published last month. Public tests of the platform, named Agent Hospital, will be conducted in … Read more
China’s top intelligence agency has warned that open-source information poses threats to national security by making sensitive data vulnerable to exploitation by foreign spies. Sensitive data that is not properly declassified or assessed for risks can be publicly spread online and “become an important source of open-source intelligence” for overseas spy agencies, the Ministry of … Read more
Several Chinese cities are awarding a “snail award” to sluggish cadres among their measures to eliminate a “lying flat” mentality among workers, after repeated calls for greater diligence by President Xi Jinping and Chinese disciplinary authorities. In the eastern city of Taizhou in Jiangsu province, a snail award has been given to workers who do … Read more
