ChinAI #256: Around the Horn (14th edition)

Greetings from a world where…

the daikon radish cravings are in full swing

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Around the Horn (14th edition)

It’s been a minute since our last Around the Horn issue (ChinAI #245). For new subscribers, here’s a quick refresher:

• I give short previews of ten articles that could be ChinAI feature translation (all published within the past week or so, with some exceptions). The title for each preview links to the original article in Chinese.

• Readers pick next week’s feature translation by replying to the email and/or commenting on the post with the number of their favorite article. *I give a little added weight to votes from readers who financially support ChinAI through paid subscriptions.

• Main premise is that any of these 10 links would have made for a great feature translation this week — like Zach Bryan’s All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (live from Red Rocks), there’s no skips!

1) Baidu this year: received a full buff, AI takes off

Summary: Baidu’s 2023 annual report was released last week, and the numbers were impressive. This article breaks these stats down further, with details on the number of calls to Baidu’s Ernie Bot large language model, which far exceeds the other 200 large models in China that “no one uses.”

Source: 雷峰网 (Leiphone) — media portal that covers China’s science and tech landscape, with a focus on AI-related happenings.

2) 50 judgments on China’s science and tech industry in 2023

Summary: Provides a panoramic view on China’s science and technology system. Obviously, AI is one of the key themes, as many of the judgements include predictions about how China’s AI ecosystem will progress in the next ten years.

Source: 甲子光年 (Jazzyear) — Beijing-based think tank focused on science and tech industry; founder Yijia Zhang was a Forbes 30 under 30 Asia winner in the Media, Marketing & Advertising category.

3) SuperCLUE large model benchmark evaluations (Feb 2024 report)

Summary: It’s been cool to follow SuperCLUE’s evolution over the past year (see ChinAI #224). They’ve added many more benchmarks (including those focused on safety and open-source models), and now instead of just one-off blog posts, SuperCLUE publishes full-on monthly reports.

Source: CLUE中文语言理解测评基准 (SuperCLUE) — organization that tests the capabilities of large language models from Chinese and international labs.

4) In just 53 seconds, SenseTime’s Office Raccoon can help you transform into a high-level worker

Summary: AItechtalk reporters test out SenseTime’s LLM-based data analysis product (Office Raccoon). In one of the tests, Office Raccoon took 53 seconds to analyze a table containing 1,000 rows of data and highlight three key trends. Definitely a bit more of a PR-y spin, but some interesting details on a key SenseTime LLM application.

Source: AI科技评论(aitechtalk) — focuses on in-depth reports on developments in the AI industry and academia.

5) Alibaba Cloud cuts prices, who benefits the most?

Summary: Alibaba Cloud recently announced its largest price cuts in history? What does this say about China’s cloud computing market, and the ability of other cloud providers to compete in serving small and medium-sized clients?

Source: 虎嗅 (Huxiu) — well-known platform that shares user-generated content but also publishes their own pieces on China’s science and technology ecosystem.

6) Can Chinese companies make Sora? This Tsinghua large model team gives hope

Summary: The question on everyone’s mind. After OpenAI dropped its Sora model, many Chinese researchers wondered: is the gap between Chinese and foreign AI technologies widening again? This lengthy interview is with two AI researchers from Tsinghua’s AI institute, who now work for the generative AI start-up Shengshu.

Source: 机器之心 (jiqizhixin) — media portal that covers China’s science and tech landscape, with a focus on AI-related happenings.

7) Biden: You have (non) memory-safe programming language coming to the United States...

Summary: Some interesting discussions in China’s open source software community about the White House cyber director’s report on switching to memory-safe programming languages, to reduce the attack surface of software products.

Source: OSChina — portal that covers China’s open source community

8) The 2024 pattern of cloud + large model

Summary: Using the running analogy of eating out at a hot pot restaurant, this report analyzes how Chinese cloud vendors are leveraging their large models to win huge bids in government affairs and industrial applications.

Source: 脑极体 (naojiti) — a tech media platform based in Tianjin.

9) Taking inventory: last year the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reported 290 problem apps

Summary: Since 2019, MIIT has reported apps that infringe on user rights (30% of the violations were for illegal collection of personal information). This article takes inventory of the 289 problem apps from 2023.

Source: 隐私护卫队 — a portal connected to the Nandu Personal Information Protection Research Center.

10) We investigated the situation of more than 800 Chinese enterprises along the Belt and Road and found these common problems

Summary: The topic is a little out-of-scope for us, but I wanted to call attention to the level of quality coming out of Wenhua Zongheng. Taking stock of overseas Chinese companies in 18 countries, the article identifies common issues involving cultural conflicts, labor shortages, financing struggles, etc.

Source: 文化纵横 (Wenhua Zongheng) — leading platform for contemporary political and cultural thought, which also publishes a quarterly journal.

ChinAI Links (Four to Forward)

This week, we’ll keep it short and sweet for the “Four to Forward” recommendations:

• How AI Can Uncover the World’s Oldest Archeological Mysteries: Claire Cameron, in a Daily Beast article, unearths “the rise of the AI archaeologist” to digitally analyze and restore ancient texts, including those in still-sealed Egyptian papyrus scrolls.

• AI is taking water from the desert: for The Atlantic, Karen Hao spent months investigating Microsoft’s campus of data centers in the Arizona desert, to estimate the true environmental impact of generative AI.

• Mapping U.S.-China Data De-Risking: Samm Sacks, Yan Luo, and Graham Webster have published an update to DigiChina’s mapping of U.S.-China decoupling. This updated mapping exercise focuses on actions on data handling and cross-border data flows.

• CNAS Fellow/Senior Fellow to lead work on compute governance: Very cool opportunity to work with a great team at CNAS (three-year appointment). More details in the link.

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 an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University.

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).

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Any suggestions or feedback? Let me know at chinainewsletter@gmail.com or on Twitter at @jjding99