China

UK Accuses China of Major Voter Data Breach

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The U.K. government has blamed China for a 2021 cyberattack that compromised the personal information of millions of U.K. voters. The data breach began as early as 2021 but wasn’t detected until a year later. Dowden said that a separate attempted cyberattack by a China-backed hacking group targeted the email accounts of U.K. lawmakers in 2021, but that parliamentary authorities mitigated the attempted breaches before any email accounts were compromised. The Norwegian government previously attributed a 2018 data breach on its systems to APT31. In 2020, Google security researchers linked APT31 to the targeting of email accounts belonging to the Trump and Biden presidential campaigns.

Senate’s Obstacle Course: Controversial Legislation Seeks to Outlaw TikTok

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A bill threatening to ban an app beloved by half of the American population just rocketed through the House of Representatives in a week’s time. TikTok the company and TikTok the chaotic community of creators and their followers are rightfully freaking out right now. TikTok successfully fought back against a state-level ban on the app in Montana last year, arguing that the law was unconstitutional. Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, who frequently sows concern about China, registered his support for a Senate version of the TikTok bill following the vote. Senator Marsha Blackburn, another Senate Republican hawkish on China, also expressed her support for pushing a version of the House TikTok bill through.

The Proposed TikTok Ban: An Update on Congress’ Decision

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TikTok ban: What’s going on with the proposed bill in Congress Congress could force TikTok to part with its Chinese parent companyTikTok faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. once again. The bill, which many of its detractors reasonably describe as a “ban,” would force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months for the app to continue operating here. The campaign to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company originated with an executive order during the Trump administration. Trump’s threats against the company culminated in a plan to force TikTok to sell its U.S. operations to Oracle in late 2020. We may learn more next week if senators begin weighing in on the prospect of creating their own version of the House bill.

“Uncovering the Truth: The Latest Bill Threatening a TikTok Ban”

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What’s going on with the new bill that could ban TikTok? Congress wants to force TikTok to part with its Chinese parent companyTikTok faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. once again. The bill, which many of its detractors reasonably describe as a “ban,” would force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months in order for the app to continue operating here. The campaign to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company originated with an executive order during the Trump administration. We may learn more next week if senators begin weighing in on the prospect of creating their own version of the house bill.

“Inside the World of LLM Building in China: Insights from an Alibaba Employee”

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Chinese tech companies are gathering all sorts of resources and talent to narrow their gap with OpenAI, and experiences for researchers on both sides of the Pacific Ocean can be surprisingly similar. The parallel glimpse into their typical day reveals striking similarities, with wake-up times at 9 a.m. and bedtime around 1 a.m. Both start the day with meetings, followed by a period of coding, model training and brainstorming with colleagues. Besides building its own LLM in-house, Alibaba has been aggressively investing in startups such as Moonshot AI, Zhipu AI, Baichuan and 01.AI. Facing competition, Alibaba has been trying to carve out a niche, and its multilingual move could become a selling point.

Haomo Secures $14M from Leading Chinese Automaker Great Wall to Advance Self-Driving Technology

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After a few years of funding frenzy, autonomous driving companies in China are experiencing a slowdown in investment. Haomo.ai, an autonomous driving startup backed by Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor, has raised 100 million yuan, or $14 million, from a fresh round of funding, it said today. Four-year-old Haomo has raised over $200 million worth of equity funding, according to startup database ITJuzi, and all of that money was denominated in Chinese yuan. Chinese food delivery giant Meituan and Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Qualcomm, are among Haomo’s past investors. Haomo is competing with a rank of Chinese AV upstarts that raised money from Western VCs and, such as Pony.ai, WeRide, Momenta, Deeproute.

“LLM Advancement: China’s AI Breakthrough Achieves a Staggering $2.5B Worth with $1B Investment in Long-Term Context Enhancement”

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If accurate, this latest injection of capital would value Moonshot AI at $2.5 billion – the largest single funding round for Chinese LLM developers on public record. Co-leading the round are e-commerce giant Alibaba and HongShan – the VC firm formerly known as Sequoia China, according to South China Morning Post. Other in the round included Chinese “super app” Meituan and Xiaohongshu (sometimes called China’s answer to Instagram), according to Chinese tech blog LatePost. Pink Floyd Fan turned AI trailblazerYang Zhilin had a long list of achievements to his credit even before starting Moonshot. The total amount raised by China’s AI firms amounted to roughly $2 billion, 70% less than the year before.

“Silent Removal: China Takes Down Proposed Gaming Regulations from Online Platform”

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Beijing has quietly pulled the proposed curbs on the video game industry from the official website, weeks after the draft guidelines wiped tens of billions of dollars off the market value of local titans. The link to the draft rules was no longer accessible as of this morning, as first reported by Reuters. The move follows Beijing also removing a key official – the head of the publication bureau of Communist Party’s Propaganda Department – over the handling of the release of the draft rules, which caught investors and gaming giants by surprise. Local media reported in recent weeks — after the wipeout — that authorities may be open to walking back on some of the proposed rules. Last month, China’s video game regulator proposed new measures to curb excessive time and money spent on computer and smartphone games.

Freshly Elected Taiwanese President Confronted with Soaring Obstacles in the Nation’s Semiconductor Sector

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Lai made impassioned comments about Taiwan’s chip industry after his victory on Saturday that seem to make it clear that his administration’s main tech focus will be on semiconductors. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry strengthens the global standing of the country, a small island with a population of 23 million. Another barrier is that even though the semiconductor industry is important to Taiwan’s economy, most people don’t work in it. “Most people in the nation are not employed in the semiconductor industry, even though it’s the lifeblood of the economy,” says Patel. Despite the challenges faced by Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, Triolo notes that its international recognition has grown significantly since Tsai came into power eight years ago.

Classical Music Lovers Rejoice: Apple Music Expands to China, Japan, Taiwan, and Beyond on Jan 24

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Apple Music Classical to launch in China, Japan, Taiwan and more on Jan 24Starting on January 24, Apple Music Classical will be available in China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Apple’s classical music app launched in most countries in March 2023, except for select markets like the above six countries. Additionally, Apple Music Classical was originally only an iOS-only app but arrived on Android devices this past summer. Apple Music Classical gives Apple Music subscribers free access to over five million tracks, more than 700 curated playlists, exclusive albums, high-quality audio and more. A standard Apple Music subscription costs $10.99 per month in the U.S., whereas a student plan costs $5.99 per month, and the Family tier is priced at $16.99 per month.