Tech
China to send tech vice minister to global AI summit in Britain
The summit will discuss what some see as the risks posed by the technology
China will send Wu Zhaohui, a Vice Minister of Science and Technology, to a global summit on artificial intelligence this week in Britain, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Britain is bringing together representatives of AI companies, political leaders and experts on Nov. 1-2 to discuss what some see as the risks posed by the technology, with an aim of building an international consensus on its safe development.
China last week accepted Britain’s invitation to attend the summit, in another sign of thawing relations, after Britain’s top diplomat James Cleverly visited Beijing in August in the first trip by a British foreign secretary in five years.
Britain is trying to improve ties with China after the relationship sunk to its lowest point in decades under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, when London restricted some Chinese investment over national security worries and expressed concern over a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
Visits to China by senior British civil servants and former officials have increased in recent months. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Beijing earlier this month and met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as Beijing seeks to boost ties with the Labour party ahead of a general election likely next year.
Wu will be joined by representatives from the Chinese foreign ministry, companies and academic bodies including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Alibaba (9988.HK) and Tencent (0700.HK), according to one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the information remained confidential.
Alibaba, Tencent and Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office did not respond immediately to requests for comment. China’s science ministry and foreign ministry, as well as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, did not respond immediately to faxed requests for comment.
Wu was appointed to his role in the science ministry in December 2022. China is restructuring the ministry to channel more resources into achieving scientific breakthroughs, with a goal of moving faster towards self-reliance.
The other source said that President Xi Jinping had initially been invited, adding that there had been a big discussion over whether Britain should invite any Chinese officials. “But eventually the view was taken that to not invite China would be counter-productive,” the source said. They also declined to be named as the information was confidential.
Like many countries around the world, China has been caught up in a global craze over generative AI following the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year.
China now has at least 130 large language models launched by companies including Alibaba and Tencent, accounting for 40% of the global total and just behind the United States’ 50% share, according to brokerage CLSA.
OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (9984.T) will each commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., the Information reported on Wednesday.
The ChatGPT maker will hold a 40% interest in Stargate, and would act as an extension of OpenAI, the report said, citing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to colleagues. His comments imply SoftBank would also have a 40% interest, the report added.
OpenAI and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle (ORCL.N) will unveil Stargate and invest $500 billion over the next four years to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Stargate will initially deploy $100 billion and the rest of the funding is expected over the next four years. The project is being led by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Taiwan’s HTC (2498.TW) said on Thursday it will sell part of its unit for extended reality (XR) headsets and glasses to Google (GOOGL.O) for $250 million and transfer some of its employees to the U.S. company.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, HTC said.
The two companies will also explore further collaboration opportunities, HTC added.
Google said in a separate statement that the deal will accelerate the development of the Android XR platform and strengthen the ecosystem for headsets and glasses.
Lu Chia-te, HTC vice president and general counsel, told reporters the company had granted its intellectual property rights to Google as a non-exclusive license.
“Therefore, this is not a buyout nor an exclusive licence. In the future, HTC will still retain the ability to use, utilise, and even further develop it without any restrictions,” he said.
Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class action filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say data could be used to train AI models, and in a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said opting out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests LinkedIn was fully aware it violated customers’ privacy and its promise to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, in order to minimize public scrutiny and legal fallout, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the San Jose, California, federal court on behalf of LinkedIn Premium customers who sent or received InMail messages, and whose private information was disclosed to third parties for AI training before Sept. 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
A lawyer for Prince Harry on Wednesday said the Duke of Sussex had reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s news conglomerate.
LinkedIn said in a statement: “These are false claims with no merit.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate additional comment.
The lawsuit was filed several hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint venture among Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL.N) and SoftBank (9984.T), with a potential $500 billion of investment, to build AI infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI, SoftBank each commit 19bn dollars to Stargate AI data center
Taiwan’s HTC to sell part of XR unit to Google for 250mn dollars
Microsoft’s LinkedIn sued for disclosing customer information to train AI models
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