Technology

A photo taken on 31 March 2023 in Manta, near Turin, shows a computer screen with the home page of the artificial intelligence OpenAI web site, displaying its ChatGPT robot. (Marco Bertorello/AFP)

China's self-censoring chatbots face many challenges

Since the release of ChatGPT late last year, Chinese tech companies have been rushing to release their own chatbots. But given the Chinese government’s tight grip on information and speech, how will chatbots developed by Chinese tech companies fare on the world stage?
Children playground miniatures are seen in front of displayed TikTok logo in this illustration taken 4 April 2023. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

US digital regulation dilemma: How to censor in a free society?

After TikTok’s recent high-profile congressional hearing, the question on everyone’s lips is what happens next — is a total ban likely? But the larger issue, says academic Sarah Kreps, is whether the US risks winning the battle of ideas and ideals but losing the war.
A man stands near a sign of ByteDance app Douyin during China Fashion Week, in Beijing, China, 31 March 2021. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

China's crackdown on fake and staged short videos

With the deluge of short-form videos on various apps and platforms, the line between fact and fiction can be blurred, with some content creators staging videos just to get views and stir up emotions. To combat this, Douyin has come up with a new rule that creators have to label staged videos as such. How effective will this be in preventing creators from going overboard in generating views?
This file photo taken on 23 January 2023 in Toulouse, southwestern France, shows screens displaying the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)

ChatGPT will permeate all facets of our work and life

While advanced AI tools like ChatGPT are viewed as a potential threat to jobs, all is not lost as workers can adapt by learning to work with such technology to achieve better outcomes.
A fuel cell charging station in Tangshan, Hebei province, China, 18 March 2023. (Xinhua)

Many challenges ahead as China promotes green hydrogen vehicles

The Chinese government has set targets for hydrogen-powered vehicles and diverse uses of hydrogen until 2035 as part of its push to get industries to shift to clean energy. However, given the processes and costs involved, it remains to be seen whether the initiative will gather enough momentum.
Chew Shou Zi, CEO of TikTok Inc., speaks during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, on 16 November 2022. (Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg)

TikTok congressional hearing: Not just about China-US tech war

While China-US relations have an impact on the US lawmakers’ scrutiny of TikTok, the intense questioning of the social media platform’s data security issues by the US Congress has sparked major global attention, especially towards the threat to the authority of sovereign states globally.
A screen grab from a video showing a man chanting pro-Huawei slogans in an Apple store in Hanghzhou, China. Can support for China-made brands like Huawei be taken too far? (Internet)

Can Chinese patriotism sustain Huawei through tough times?

Can patriotism be taken too far in supporting Huawei or any other China-made product regardless of quality? Does Huawei even need this form of support? Zaobao’s China Desk takes a look at Huawei’s outlook, as it seems that it needs more than acts of patriotism to tide it over the difficulties it will face in the coming years.
 A central processing unit (CPU) semiconductor chip is displayed among flags of China and U.S., in this illustration picture taken 17 February 2023. (Florence Lo/Reuters)

Tech war: The US's mimicking of Chinese policies is fundamentally flawed

Erik Baark observes that the US has an added motive for using ‘national security’ to impose various high-tech export restrictions on China — to give itself wriggle room vis-à-vis WTO rules for trade trade and trade restrictions. In fact, many of their policies seem to be mimicking the very Chinese techno-nationalist and neo-mercantilist attitudes that have been criticised by the West, and may or may not achieve their intended effect.
An illustration projected on a screen shows a robot hand and a human one moving towards each others during the "AI for Good" Global Summit at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, 7 June 2017. (Denis Balibouse/File Photo/Reuters)

AI is us, we are AI

Malaysian academic Goh Chun Sheng ponders the weighty issues thrown up by artificial intelligence, seeking a little assistance from none other than OpenAI’s ChatGPT.