ChinAI #168: Around the Horn (edition 6)
Greetings from a world where…
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 2022
…As always, the searchable archive of all past issues is here. Please please subscribe here to support ChinAI under a Guardian/Wikipedia-style tipping model (everyone gets the same content but those who can pay support access for all AND compensation for awesome ChinAI contributors).
Around the Horn (6th edition)
Let’s run it back again. Here’s how Around the Horn issues work:
Brief previews of 10 recently-published articles related to ChinAI (all links go to original Chinese).
Readers choose next week’s feature translation. Just reply to the email and/or comment on the post with the number of the article you’re most intrigued by. *Votes by subscribers who financially support ChinAI have added weight.
I like this format because it sparks interest in others researching this space. For instance, a previous iteration (ChinAI #158) surfaced a White Paper on China’s Computing Power Development Index. The following month, CSET did a full translation of that paper.
1) 2021 Global Programmer Income Report Released! Bytedance Ranks 5th with a 2.74 million RMB annual salary for senior coders
Summary: Levels.fyi recently released their report on software engineering compensation from firms around the globe. This article summarizes the China-specific findings from the report and also introduces data about programmer compensation from Chinese-language reports, including the 2020-2021 Chinese Developer Survey Report by the Chinese Software Developer Network.
Source: 新智元 (AI New Era) — long-time source for ChinAI translations, news platform that regularly covers AI issues.
2) CAICT Releases 5G “Setting Sail” Development Index (2021)
Summary: This index aims to monitor and evaluate the deployment of 5G systems and applications in China. Provides a good snapshot view of the successes and shortcomings of China’s drive to accelerate 5G diffusion.
Source: China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (中国信通院/CAICT) — a think tank under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
3) Internet law researchers, should they keep their distance from companies?
Summary: A community of researchers that study internet law has grown alongside China’s internet industries. This article explores some tensions in this relationship, including accounts of companies intimidating and personally attacking academics that speak out against corporate interests.
Source: Caijing ELaw (财经E法) —a relatively new and independent content platform focused on internet governance under the umbrella of Caijing Magazine, a respected business platform.
4) China’s algorithmic governance upgrades to 2.0
Summary: The Chinese government recently finalized regulations for recommendation systems, including requirements for providers to protect users’ personal information and allow them to conveniently turn off recommendation services. Caijing ELaw collects insights from experts who comment that these regulations mark China’s entrance to the 2.0 era of algorithmic governance.
Source: Caijing ELaw (财经E法) — quickly becoming a go-to source for learning about digital regulation in China.
5) SenseTime’s IPO: Good soup is not afraid of being late, so what if it cooks slow
Summary: After delaying its IPO after U.S. sanctions, Chinese AI giant SenseTime finally debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange, where its shares have seen surprising growth. This article cheerleads the IPO, painting an optimistic picture based on SenseTime’s success with industrial applications of computer vision.
Source: Huxiu (虎嗅) — popular, more general-interest-facing S&T platform that shares user-generated content but also publishes its own pieces.
6) Interpreting the 2021 BAAI AI Frontier Reports: Latest Developments in the Medical Field
Summary: BAAI recently launched a big report on frontier research on AI. This summary article looks at medical applications in more depth.
Source: Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (智源社区) — AI research institute funded by the Beijing government, with support from the central government and leading academic and industry players such as Peking University and Baidu.
7) The masking effect of media dependence: quasi-social interactions with social robots and loneliness
Summary: Researchers from China Women’s University, Beijing Normal University, and Michigan State present interesting findings about Chinese users’ connections with Microsoft XiaoIce (a very popular chatbot), media dependence, and loneliness.
Source: Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication (国际新闻界) — Chinese-language journal housed at Renmin University.
8) China’s Internet Lost in 2021
Summary: The gap with Silicon Valley only further widened. The number of tech unicorns in Europe surpassed that of China. Why did China’s internet lose 2021?
Source: 赛格大道 — first time coming across this platform but seems aligned with the “development blogger” trend we’ve noted previously. Four WeChat friends had already read this article before I clicked on it, so seems to be pretty popular.
9) Face-scan security checks appear at the Beijing Metro again
Summary: The Beijing Metro is piloting five stations for passengers to scan their face and bypass conventional security checks. This has raised concerns about privacy and data leaks.
Source: 隐私护卫队 — a portal connected to the Nandu Personal Information Protection Research Center.
10) Songchun Zhu: Intelligence needs to be driven by “heart,” achieving a dynamic balance between “heart” and “reason”
Summary: Songchun Zhu, dean of Peking University’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence, recently gave talks to Tsinghua University and Peking University students on the subject of how the humanities and Chinese philosophy can inspire research on AI, especially in the area of general AI. This article integrates the contents of these talks and also includes excerpts from the associated Q&As.
Source: AI科技评论 (aitechtalk) — focuses on in-depth reports on developments in the AI industry and academia. Original source is the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, which Zhu leads.
ChinAI Links (Four to Forward)
Should-apply/read/watch: a dash of self-promo
APSA Politics of Emerging Technologies Mini-Conference Call for Proposals: A group of junior researchers (Baobao Zhang, Justin Canfil, Julie George, Nicole Wu, and myself) are trying to co-organize a mini-conference for this years American Political Science Association conference. I know a decent number of readers are in academia, so if you have work in this subfield, please consider applying (deadline is January 10th!).
HAI Weekly Seminar (1/19/22): I’ll be presenting my research on how technological revolutions affect the rise and fall of great powers at a seminar hosted by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Thanks to Ed Andrews and the HAI communications team for writing up a Q&A that previews some of what I’ll be discussing.
CSET Webinar on Research Clouds & U.S. Nat’l Security (1/20/22): Excited to moderate a discussion between Stanford HAI Director of Policy Russell Wald and CSET Senior Fellow Andrew Lohn on recommendations for the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource task force.
Must-read: China’s Draft Regulations on Recommendation Algorithms
China finalized its regulations for recommender systems on January 4th. A good time to circle back to this thread by Kendra Schaefer, who is a partner at Trivium China. The DigiChina team has translated these major new regulations on the use of recommendation algorithms. H/t to Helen Toner for flagging.
Should-take: The Economics of AI on Coursera
Anton Korinek of Brookings, UVA and the Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI) has just released a six-week course on "The Economics of AI" that is available for free on Coursera. The course covers how transformative artificial intelligence will affect our economy and society, labor markets, inequality, growth, and economic policy.
See this Youtube video to learn more about the course. Also check out Anton’s recent Brookings report on regulating advanced AI.
Thank you for reading and engaging.
These are Jeff Ding's (sometimes) weekly translations of Chinese-language musings on AI and related topics. Jeff is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, sponsored by Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Check out the archive of all past issues here & please subscribe here to support ChinAI under a Guardian/Wikipedia-style tipping model (everyone gets the same content but those who can pay for a subscription will support access for all).
Any suggestions or feedback? Let me know at chinainewsletter@gmail.com or on Twitter at @jjding99
10 (朱松纯：智能需由“心”驱动，实现“心”与“理”的动态平衡 ), and good luck with translating even a fraction of that. Thanks loads!
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