Researchers of Chinese Origin Dominate the World's Top AI Talent
Recent launch of DeepSeek AI model has brought to light the large and growing AI talent in China. The researchers working for the Chinese startup have shown that human creativity and problem-solving skills can overcome limitations such as access to high-performance hardware. It confirms that the most important resource needed for breakthroughs in AI is the human resource.
The people of Chinese PRC origin account for 47% of the top 20% AI talent in the world based on undergraduate degree, according to a survey. Americans make up 18%, Europeans 12% and Indians 5% of the global AI researchers. In terms of the countries they serve, 57% of them work in the United States, 12% in China, 8% in the UK, 4% each in France and Germany and 3% in Canada as of 2022. While the US still has the lion's share of the top talent, its share has declined from 65% in 2019 to 57% in 2022. Marco Polo talent tracker lists Pakistan among a dozen countries for top AI talent in Asia.
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| Top Global AI Talent. Marco Polo AI Talent Tracker |
More than half (15 out 25) of the institutions (companies and universities) where the top AI researchers work are located in the United States, while 6 are in China. The remaining four are in the UK, Switzerland, Singapore and Canada, according to Marco Polo Global AI Talent Tracker.
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| Top AI Talent in Asia Pacific. Source: Marco Polo |
The Chinese from PRC dominate the Asia Pacific region with 81.9% of the top AI talent. Indians account for 8.2%, South Korea 4% and "others" 5.8%. "Others” include Taiwan, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka.
The fact that a number of large language models, including Chinese DeepSeek and Meta's Llama 3, are open source will help develop more global AI talent and spur greater innovation around the world. In the end, it is much more likely that the open source offerings will see greater success than the closed source models like OpenAI's.
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Top-China-chipmaker-SMIC-says-tariff-war-sparking-rush-orders
TAIPEI -- China's top chipmaker says clients are stockpiling inventory and asking to move up delivery of orders scheduled for later in the year due to concerns over U.S. tariffs and broader geopolitical tensions.
Zhao Haijun, co-CEO of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., told investors and reporters on Wednesday that his company has seen a rush in orders in the first two quarters of 2025.
"We see many [customers] want to ship the products to their export destinations as soon as possible, so they are building up inventories for the second half or even the full year. ... They are hoping to prepare as many parts for their products in advance as soon as possible," Zhao said. "Currently the ocean shipping is very crowded to fulfill all these rush orders as well. ... But we don't know how long this could last, given the dynamics of global uncertainties."
U.S. President Donald Trump has started a broad tariff war against China and other nations, including imposing an additional 10% blanket tariff on Chinese imports.
Zhao said a rapid acceleration of local chip production has raised SMIC's revenue to a record level, but warned of a price war and tariff uncertainties in the second half of 2025.
Efforts to boost local production in critical areas, including automotive applications, are bearing fruit, with some chip products now being produced in large volumes.
China has instructed domestic carmakers, including BYD, to use up to 25% locally made automotive chips to boost local self-sufficiency, Nikkei Asia reported earlier.
The industry reoriented toward the domestic supply chain at "a relatively rapid pace," Zhao said. "Our Chinese customers' market share expanded, and revenue from these customers grew 34%, year over year."
Beijing's economic stimulus measures have also encouraged clients to restock chips used in products like smartphones, notebooks, electric vehicles and bicycles, he said. "Our 8-inch wafer capacity is running at full utilization, beating the traditional seasonality for the first quarter."
"However, we are worried that the rush orders for the first half of this year would result in soft demand in the second half, when many peers will have new capacity go online at the same time," Zhao said. "That means there might be intensified price competition to fight for orders later in the year. ... The trend for the price is unclear for the second half, but it will not go up."
SMIC estimates its 2025 annual revenue will grow 6% to 8%, higher than the industry average in the same markets.
It plans capital investment in 2025 on a similar level as last year's $7.3 billion, much higher than its foreign contract chipmaking peers, such as United Microelectronics Corp.
SMIC's revenue for the last quarter of 2024 rose 31.5% to $2.2 billion, with operating profit nearly doubling from a year earlier. However, its net profit declined 38.4% to $108 million compared with the same period the previous year. The chipmaker attributed this to higher expenses from the startup of new plants.
Its full-year revenue for 2024 was $8.03 billion, up 27% from 2023, with net profit down 45%.
American rival Globalfoundries reported a net loss on Wednesday for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Its full-year revenue came to $6.75 billion, with a net loss of $262 million.
Nearly 90% of SMIC's revenue from the last quarter of 2024 came from China. The figure for the full year was 85%.
https://engineerine.com/china-504-qubit-xiaohong-chip/
China has just shattered records in quantum computing with the launch of Tianyan-504, a superconducting quantum computer powered by the Xiaohong chip. With an unprecedented 504 qubits, this marks a major milestone in the global quantum race, putting China in direct competition with tech giants like IBM and Google.
Quantum computing is one of the most revolutionary advancements in technology, with the potential to solve complex problems exponentially faster than traditional computers. From AI to cryptography, medical research, and national security, this breakthrough is a game-changer.
How does Tianyan-504 compare to global competitors, and what does it mean for the future of computing? Let’s break it down.
The Tianyan-504 is China’s most powerful quantum computer to date, developed using superconducting quantum technology. It is powered by the Xiaohong chip, an advanced 504-qubit processor, making it one of the most powerful quantum machines in the world.
Key Features of Tianyan-504:
Record-Breaking 504 Qubits – China’s highest-qubit quantum processor to date.
Superconducting Quantum Technology – Uses extremely cold temperatures to minimize errors and improve qubit stability.
Cloud-Accessible – Available for remote use in 50+ countries via China Telecom.
Rivaling IBM and Google – Competing directly with IBM’s Eagle (433 qubits) and Google’s Sycamore (72 qubits).
With this cutting-edge technology, China has positioned itself as a dominant force in the global quantum race.
Unlike traditional computers that use binary bits (0s and 1s), quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to superposition and entanglement. This allows quantum computers to perform massively parallel calculations, solving problems that classical computers would take thousands of years to process.
How the Xiaohong Chip Works:
Qubits Operate in Superposition – This allows them to perform multiple calculations at once.
Quantum Entanglement – Qubits communicate instantaneously, boosting computing efficiency.
Error Correction Mechanisms – Advanced superconducting circuits reduce quantum errors, making calculations more accurate.
Why Is This a Big Deal?
Key Implications of Tianyan-504:
AI and Machine Learning – Quantum computing could train AI models thousands of times faster, accelerating breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
Cybersecurity and Cryptography – Quantum computers have the power to break traditional encryption, making current security protocols obsolete.
Drug Discovery and Healthcare – Quantum simulations could develop new medicines and treatments at an unprecedented pace.
Climate and Energy Solutions – Quantum algorithms can optimize energy grids, simulate climate models, and enhance battery technology.
National Security and Defense – Quantum advancements could give China an edge in intelligence, surveillance, and secure communications.
By leading in quantum computing, China is gaining a strategic advantage across multiple industries.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/2/18/trumps-tariffs-present-fresh-headache-for-indias-slowing-economy
Hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would levy reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners.
It could hardly have come at a tougher time for India, which is already pressed by a slowing economy and sluggish demand.
At a joint news conference, Trump said India would buy F-35 fighter jets and oil and gas from the US. The two countries would also begin negotiations on the US trade deficit with India.
India runs a large trade surplus with the US and such negotiations and military and oil purchases could adversely impact its economy at a time when it is going through a slowdown.
With the Indian economy expected to grow at 6.4 percent in the year ending March, its slowest in four years, the Modi government announced income tax relief for the middle class in the annual budget earlier this month.
Days later, the country’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly five years by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent with Governor Sanjay Malhotra saying a less restrictive monetary policy was more appropriate in light of the current “growth-inflation dynamics”
Economists warn the tax relief may not be enough for the vast majority of Indians, whose income still falls below taxable limits and who may still be reeling from the impact of the COVID pandemic, which devastated their earnings.
“There is a vast base [of people] where recovery has not come back after the pandemic,” says Kaushik Basu, professor of economics at Cornell University. “We see this in data that the agricultural labour base has increased. And agriculture may well be just a parking spot.”
Basu was referring to people who left urban jobs during India’s tight and prolonged COVID lockdown and returned to their villages. Without enough well-paying jobs to return to in cities, they have stayed in their villages doing seasonal agricultural labour.
Dhiraj Nim, an economist at ANZ Bank expects the tax relief to have a 0.2 percent impact on the gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
“People will consume a little more, but they will also save more. Some personal loan repayment will happen,” he said. “I don’t think the boost in consumption will offset the one trillion rupees [$11.5bn] given in relief by too much.”
Moreover, any economic boost will be a short-term measure while the problems it seeks to address “are more fundamental”, warns Alexandra Hermann, lead economist at Oxford Economics. “There is nothing [in the budget] that addresses employment or skilling,” that will lead to broader and more sustained growth, she says. Just about 2 percent of Indians currently pay income tax and unemployment and underemployment have stayed high, she says.
Some of India’s slowdown could be attributed to a cyclical tapering in demand after the post-pandemic recovery when the economy grew sharply. Industry heads and government officials believed India was on a high growth trajectory. The country is already the world’s fifth-largest economy and is projected to become the third-largest by 2030.
But now the “issues beneath the growth” have been revealed, Cornell’s Basu says. “While there has been inequality for at least two decades, what we are seeing now has not been seen since 1947,” the year that India won its independence from the British.
Delicate economic juggle
The government has sought to spur growth through strong spending on infrastructure such as roads and bridges. But stimulus provided during the pandemic meant the government needs to tighten its belt to meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.5 percent by next year. This reduced spending could also take away from some of the boost provided by the income tax relief, Nim of ANZ says.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/2/18/trumps-tariffs-present-fresh-headache-for-indias-slowing-economy
Modi’s US visit comes amids this delicate economic moment in India. President Trump spoke of India’s high tariffs on American cars and other products meant to protect Indian industry and create domestic jobs.
India, like Mexico and Canada, will also enter negotiations to bridge its trade surplus, but this could involve concessions that could hurt Indian industry as well as purchases it can hardly afford. (New Delhi peremptorily reduced tariffs on Harley Davidson motorbikes in the budget.)
“It is notable that the Indian government has gone out of its way to avoid tariffs,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington, DC-based think tank. “A big reason for this is the fragile economic growth.”
The Indian government also accepted its first 100 deportees from the US without official protest, although they were sent in a military aircraft and in handcuffs. At their news conference, Modi said these were victims of human trafficking, which had to stop. He did not bring up with Trump their treatment by the US as some other countries have for their own deportees.
High tariffs on steel imports that the US has already announced are bound to affect Indian exports. However, the Indian economy is largely fuelled by domestic consumption compared to other Asian economies, says Oxford Economics’ Hermann.
That is the deeper problem that is now starting to emerge.
Kartik Muralidharan, Tata Chancellor’s professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego, says the government’s expanded food transfer programme has supported India’s bottom half and may have led to their participation in the economy.
However, he and others underscore the need for greater economic reform to encourage higher and more equitable growth.
“Generally, reforms come at a time of external challenges,” Muralidharan says, referring to how India’s economic reforms in 1991 came in the wake of the Gulf War and a balance of payment crisis. “We need another ‘91,” he says.
Cornell’s Basu suggests the rising inequality would best be addressed through “a little higher tax for the super-rich and use it to support small businesses.”
Basu also says small businesses have been affected by compliance costs for the Goods and Services Tax and could be simplified and lowered.
The government has said it expects a growth rate of about 6.7 percent for the year ahead, indicating strong growth in the current global landscape. But ANZ’s Nim says the “bigger concern should be growing per capita income and better distribution of that income so it reaches people who need it.”
In January 2025, China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) nuclear fusion reactor set a new world record by sustaining a plasma at 100 million° C for 1,066 seconds. This breakthrough is a major step toward the goal of generating clean, limitless energy.
Explanation What is EAST.
EAST is also known as China's "artificial sun". It's a tokamak reactor that uses extreme heat and pressure to create nuclear fusion. What's the significance of this breakthrough.
This breakthrough is a major step toward practical fusion reactors that could power cities without pollution or radioactive waste.
What are the benefits of fusion energy?
Fusion energy has a zero emission footprint and produces far greater amounts of energy than any other source.
Other details
China invests nearly double the U.S. in fusion research.
China has ambitious plans for fusion power plants to provide clean, limitless energy.
The Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) is under construction in Hefei, China and is scheduled for completion in 2025.
You can also watch this video to learn more about China's nuclear fusion breakthrough:
https://youtu.be/g-PLekYOv20
ByBryan Penprase, Contributor. Bryan Penprase covers global innovations in
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/02/18/new-forms-of-higher-education-for-building-pakistans-future/
Pakistan’s future economy will be built through higher education. Pakistan’s economy has been traditionally rooted in agriculture and textiles but is expanding its presence in construction, renewable energy, and IT and its higher education system can provide more opportunities for a young and growing population. The nation’s future economy will be based on technology growth and in manufacturing, mining, and renewable energy. Already, Pakistan has produced many startup companies, such as NayaPay, a fintech payment processing platform founded in 2016, and DealCart, an online grocery store founded in 2022. Both were listed in the Forbes Asia 100 To Watch list in 2024, and new investments from China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the US promise to further develop Pakistan’s tech sector.
Pakistan’s meteoric population growth provides unique challenges. In just the past twenty years, its population has grown from 141 million to over 250 million, making Pakistan the fifth most populous country in the world. The median age is estimated at 19 years in 2023, and two thirds of its population is under 30, giving the country the third largest college-age population in the world, surpassed only by China and India. Keeping the most talented, young population within the country is vital for developing its future, yet in 2022 alone, over 760,000 Pakistanis emigrated, including 92,000 highly educated doctors, engineers and other tech professionals.
Pakistan’s Future Depends on Higher Education
To develop and retain its most talented young people, Pakistan urgently needs to expand and upgrade its higher education system. Higher education in Pakistan began with the University of the Punjab, founded in Lahore in 1882 under British Colonial rule. Another early institution, Lahore Mission College, was founded in 1864 and renamed Forman Christian College (FCC) in 1894. Additional public universities were developed after 1947, notably the prestigious Quaid-i-Azam University, founded in 1967 to offer postgraduate programs, and the Allam Igbal Open University, Pakistan’s largest university with over 1 million students, founded in 1974.
By the early 1980’s Pakistan allowed new private universities, enabling the founding of Aga Khan University (AKU) in 1983, with a focus on health sciences, and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1985. Prominent public universities were also formed recently, such as the top-ranked National University of Science and Technology (NUST), formed in 1991. By 2024, Pakistan had over 240 colleges and universities, enrolling over 3 million students, representing only 11 percent of Pakistan’s college-aged population. While Pakistan’s system lacks capacity to fully serve its large population, many innovative universities including AKU, LUMS, FCC, as well as Habib University are retaining some of Pakistan’s best students to shape Pakistan’s future.
Aga Khan University (AKU) and Medical Education
AKU began as Pakistan’s first private university and hosts the country’s the top-ranked Medical College. With branch campuses opened in 2000 in East Africa, Afghanistan and the UK, AKU has since expanded across Africa to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Despite being small and selective, with under 2000 students, AKU provides affordable health care to over 2 million patients in six countries. The institution is committed to empowering women, who comprise nearly half of its faculty and 60% of its students. AKU also has major programs in teacher education and educational leadership, with Institutes for Educational Development based in Pakistan and East Africa.
Other major universities: LUMS, FCC, Habib,
https://www.nature.com/nature-index/research-leaders/2024/institution/academic/all/global
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2PGR4Yo/
Position Institution Share 2022 Share 2023 Count 2023 Change in Adjusted Share* 2022–2023
1 Harvard University, United States of America (USA) 1169.58 1143.43 3763 -3.1%
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), China 598.85 635.81 3227 5.2%
3 University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), China 586.57 631.20 1858 6.7%
4 Peking University (PKU), China 562.29 617.17 2349 8.8%
5 Nanjing University (NJU), China 565.57 609.45 1448 6.8%
6 Zhejiang University (ZJU), China 479.35 595.37 1540 23.1%
7 Tsinghua University, China 529.08 593.45 1946 11.2%
8 Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), China 437.07 492.47 1266 11.7%
9 Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China 439.68 488.94 1449 10.2%
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States of America (USA) 479.97 484.86 2032 0.1%
11 Stanford University, United States of America (USA) 592.62 474.13 1929 -20.7%
12 Fudan University, China 429.84 461.26 1333 6.4%
13 Sichuan University (SCU), China 327.62 413.63 768 25.2%
14 The University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Japan 398.90 389.36 1239 -3.2%
15 University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) 423.50 388.35 1625 -9.1%
16 University of Michigan (U-M), United States of America (USA) 372.55 380.50 1415 1.2%
17 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) 428.91 368.12 1436 -14.9%
18 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland 353.52 346.26 1042 -2.9%
19 Yale University, United States of America (USA) 380.20 342.16 1402 -10.8%
20 Nankai University (NKU), China 316.97 337.67 797 5.6%
21 Wuhan University (WHU), China 276.30 334.72 768 20.1%
22 University of Toronto (U of T), Canada 366.05 334.38 1192 -9.4%
23 University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States of America (USA) 335.22 331.74 1062 -1.9%
24 Columbia University in the City of New York (CU), United States of America (USA) 342.91 330.31 1232 -4.5%
25 University of Pennsylvania (Penn), United States of America (USA) 374.65 323.65 1118 -14.4%
26 Cornell University, United States of America (USA) 302.76 320.47 1070 4.9%
27 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States of America (USA) 341.25 313.78 1214 -8.8%
28 Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China 248.29 312.65 725 24.8%
29 University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States of America (USA) 350.71 312.19 1358 -11.8%
30 Shandong University (SDU), China 263.71 309.49 951 16.3%
31 University of Washington (UW), United States of America (USA) 305.50 295.93 1452 -4.0%
32 Northwestern University (NU), United States of America (USA) 313.12 295.49 904 -6.4%
33 Johns Hopkins University (JHU), United States of America (USA) 351.93 294.65 1358 -17.0%
34 Xiamen University (XMU), China 262.58 289.61 569 9.3%
35 Soochow University, China 246.72 289.15 614 16.2%
36 Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China 295.49 279.54 770 -6.2%
37 Jilin University (JLU), China 247.88 268.37 601 7.3%
38 National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 250.00 253.94 904 0.7%
39 Central South University (CSU), China 189.42 252.70 582 32.2%
40 Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), United States of America (USA) 261.57 251.01 804 -4.9%
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3297914/china-leads-world-physics-research-us-distant-rival-nature-index-shows
The world’s top organisations for high-quality physics research are all in China or Europe, with the US’ highest-ranked institution coming in at No 13, according to the latest Nature Index.A China-based observer said this could have far-reaching implications for the United States’ technological edge, with physics underpinning much of modern technology and innovation. But another highlighted America’s overall lead in original research breakthroughs.The Nature Index – maintained by the prestigious journal of the same name – ranks research institutions based on their contributions to articles published in the world’s most influential scientific journals.The latest list was based on research output in the 12 months from November 2023.
China dominated the top 10, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and Tsinghua University taking the top three spots.Only two non-Chinese institutions broke into the top 10 – the Max Planck Society in Germany at No 4 and the French National Centre for Scientific Research at No 10.
The top three US institutions – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Stanford University – were ranked at 13th, 16th and 20th, respectively.
In the 2021 index, by contrast, the three American institutions were in the top 10, while only two from China – CAS and USTC – made it into the group.
The Nature Index measures two different scores – count and share. An institution receives one point for each article with at least one affiliated author, and these points add up to the institution’s count score.For the share score, each article is assigned a value of one, which is divided equally among all authors. For example, for an article with 10 authors, each receives a share value of 0.1. Each institution’s share score is calculated by adding the share values of the authors from that institution.
In the latest list, CAS leads by a wide margin in both metrics, while the Max Planck Society is the only non-Chinese research organisation in the top five.However, a CAS physicist warned that while the index was an informative measure of the strength of research institutions, it did have its limitations and the rankings should be taken with a pinch of salt.“The increasing number of high-quality scientific papers published by Chinese researchers in top journals in recent years reflects to some extent that China’s overall strength in physics research is on the rise,” said Chen Xiaolong, a physicist at the Institute of Physics under CAS.
But this metric was not everything, he said. “China still lags behind the United States overall in terms of original and truly groundbreaking research breakthroughs, except for a few branches,” Chen said.Analytical instrumentation engineer Jin Xianchi, who holds a doctorate in physics from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), was of the same view. He said many factors were behind the rankings.“Chinese and European labs tend to have larger teams, so it is easier to produce more influential papers,” Jin said. On the other hand, some notably pioneering research may not be accepted by academic journals at first, which could put an innovative organisation at a disadvantage.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3297914/china-leads-world-physics-research-us-distant-rival-nature-index-shows
“The increasing number of high-quality scientific papers published by Chinese researchers in top journals in recent years reflects to some extent that China’s overall strength in physics research is on the rise,” said Chen Xiaolong, a physicist at the Institute of Physics under CAS.
But this metric was not everything, he said. “China still lags behind the United States overall in terms of original and truly groundbreaking research breakthroughs, except for a few branches,” Chen said.Analytical instrumentation engineer Jin Xianchi, who holds a doctorate in physics from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), was of the same view. He said many factors were behind the rankings.“Chinese and European labs tend to have larger teams, so it is easier to produce more influential papers,” Jin said. On the other hand, some notably pioneering research may not be accepted by academic journals at first, which could put an innovative organisation at a disadvantage.
However, according to Jin, there has actually been a decline in America’s overall leadership in scientific research since World War II – including in physics. He said this had happened for a variety of reasons, including a brain drain.Physics is the foundation on which most modern technological developments and cutting-edge research are based. And throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, the US has been the leading destination for physics research, accounting for nearly 100 Nobel Prizes in the field.“A decline in the level of research over a period of time is bound to have implications for the future,” Jin said.
In 2018, an article in Forbes magazine warned that the US was at risk of “no longer attracting the best and brightest minds in physics”.An American Physical Society survey cited in the article showed that the country had seen an unprecedented drop in the number of international applications to physics PhD programmes over the previous year.Meanwhile, a number of Chinese physicists have chosen to leave the US in recent years.
In January last year, for example, award-winning Chinese-American physicist Gao Huajian joined Tsinghua University as a full-time professor. More recently, computational physicist Chen Hudong – an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering – left America after more than four decades to take up a full-time position in China.An annual Chinese report assessing scientific activities and trends in major countries, released last November, showed that China had regained the world’s top spot in physics research in 2024, after losing it to the United States in 2023.
@NuryVittachi
There is no race between China and the US to be top player in AI development, says a new report from Nature, the world's top science journal.
The two countries are on different tracks with different endpoints. The US has been leading the pack in making big, headline-grabbing projects like ChatGPT, while China's focus has been, and remains, the production of practical AI programs that help industrialists, farmers, business people and factories.
AI programs in China are being used "to make trains run on time, monitor fish stocks and provide automated telehealth services," says the report by science writer Jacob Dreyer in the latest edition of the scientific publication.
Ultimately, China will do its usual thing, passing the systems that work to other nations, "especially to lower-income countries," the report says.
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DIFFERENT SOURCES OF SUPPORT
In the west, companies need to have innovative ideas that make an impact in the media to attract venture capitalists to invest. In contrast, China has more of an engineering school approach—projects must have practical benefit and be shown to be working to get government investment.
"The divergence in priorities reflects the forces driving innovation in each economy: venture capital in the United States and large-scale manufacturing enterprises and organs of the state in China," Dreyer says.
That doesn't mean that Chinese AI projects are always smaller. One of them is to integrate AI into a system to control the national grid so that the best use can be made of energy.
China is keen to keep its reputation as a leader in making clean energy options affordable around the world. "Its emerging AI playbook mirrors its approach to other technologies, such as electric vehicles and clean energy: not the first to innovate, but the first to make them affordable for widespread use," Dreyer writes.
The huge attention paid to DeepSeek, a relatively cheap but high performance AI chatbot, has hidden the difference in strategies, inspiring journalists to conjure up the colorful but ultimately inaccurate scenario of a US-China AI "arms race".
.
STRATEGIC PLAN - FOR FARMERS
The appearance of the Nature report happily coincided with the February 20 publication of a Chinese government "strategic plan" for farmers to use scientific developments, including AI and genetic modification, to boost crop production and help the country move towards food self-sufficiency. You can't get much more practical than that.
Other recent data also bolsters the theory that Chinese AI projects may be lower profile, but have already made more inroads in business and industry.
A recent international study of usage of AI revealed that more respondents from China – 83 per cent – said their companies were using AI, than respondents from the United States – at only 65 per cent. In fact, the data in the SAS Generative AI Global Research Report shows that China was ahead of all other nations in the study in this regard (see pic).
[from fridayeveryday. com]
https://x.com/NuryVittachi/status/1894277527151284232
@wmhuo168
China claims to have built a jet fuel-powered engine for Mach 16 flight—faster than any known aircraft. If true, this rewrites the rules of war, rendering missile defenses obsolete. Game-changer or hype? Let’s break it down.
https://x.com/wmhuo168/status/1895319837569917216
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China’s Mach 16 Engine SpaceRacer6 on TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2H5ckPw/
China's semiconductor foundry company SMIC achieved record quarterly performance in the third quarter of this year (July to September).
Despite challenges in producing advanced semiconductors due to U.S. sanctions, the demand for legacy chips used in local home appliances has increased, leading to higher sales.
SMIC announced on Nov. 8 that it recorded $2.17119 billion in sales in the third quarter, a 34% increase compared to the same period last year ($1.62058 billion).
This marks the highest quarterly sales ever, and it is the first time SMIC's sales have surpassed $2 billion. Operating profit was $169.89 million, and net profit was $148.80 million, representing increases of 94.4% and 58.3%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
SMIC's performance continues to improve, supported by the Chinese government's backing for semiconductor self-sufficiency despite the ongoing U.S.-China conflict.
In the third quarter, domestic sales in China amounted to $1.875 billion, accounting for 86.4% of total sales, up from 84% ($1.361 billion) last year. Conversely, sales in the U.S., Asia, and Europe declined.
SMIC is also facing difficulties in acquiring advanced semiconductor equipment. Its capital expenditure in the third quarter was $1.179 billion, a 44.8% decrease from $2.135 billion last year.
However, production based on legacy processes continues to increase. SMIC's factory utilization rate in the third quarter was 90.4%, recovering from 77.1% in the same quarter last year.
SMIC expects its sales in the fourth quarter (October to December) to be similar to or slightly higher than the record high of the previous quarter.
Hua Hong Semiconductor, another leading foundry in China alongside SMIC, also showed significant improvement compared to last year.
The company's third-quarter sales were $526.30 million, a 7.4% decrease compared to the same period last year, but net profit turned positive at $22.91 million, compared to a loss of $25.90 million last year.
The strong performance of Chinese semiconductor companies could provoke further tightening of U.S. semiconductor regulations.
The South China Morning Post reported, "It is a common view that Trump will strengthen control over China's technology sector."
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
This is actually an extraordinary admission to make for a US Vice President https://x.com/OopsGuess/status/1902396228404674853/video/1
Vance explains that "the idea of globalization was that rich countries would move further up the value chain while the poor countries made the simpler things."
But he laments that it didn't quite work out this way: as he explains it turns out that poor countries (mostly China) didn't want to just remain cheap labor forever and started moving up the value chain themselves. Which is why, according to him, globalization was a failure.
Meaning that the objective of globalization wasn't to reduce global inequalities but very much to maintain them, to institute a system of permanent economic hierarchy where rich countries would maintain their hold over the most profitable sectors while relegating poor countries to perpetual subordination in lower-value production.
This is basically all you need to know to explain 90% of U.S. foreign policy these past few years: colonial thinking is alive and well, and America's shift of strategy in recent years - away from the previous "Washington Consensus" of "free" markets towards a much more overt attempt to contain and restrict China's development - stems precisely from this mindset.
From semiconductor export controls to investment restrictions, these policies aren't about 'national security' in any genuine sense - they're about trying to preserve a global economic order where, simply put, poorer nations know their assigned place and stay there. At the very core, that's the "China threat": a China that stepped out of the economic lane assigned to it by the West.
It's deeply ironic when you think of it: a global game allegedly designed to "spread market principles" worldwide is being abandoned precisely because it worked too well. When China succeeded better than expected, the response wasn't to celebrate the validation of the game's effectiveness but to change its rules. Precisely because the real unspoken game - but now clearly stated by the U.S. Vice President - was to maintain global inequality, not eliminate it.
All in all, in case they hadn't yet gotten the memo, this sends a very clear message to the developing world: economic development will require challenging a U.S.-dominated economic order that views their advancement as a threat rather than a success. Which incidentally is why Vance's words might actually help accelerate the very redistribution of global economic power he laments, pushing more nations to recognize that genuine development requires strategic independence from a system intended to keep them in their place.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1902528428643168632
https://propakistani.pk/2025/03/22/pakistan-launches-its-first-homegrown-ai-chatbot-tailored-for-local-needs/
Pakistan has achieved a notable milestone in the tech sector with the beta launch of Zahanat AI, the nation’s first locally developed artificial intelligence chatbot. Spearheaded by entrepreneur Mehwish Salman Ali, co-founder and CEO of Data Vault and Zahanat AI, the platform promises to address Pakistan’s unique challenges with culturally sensitive and locally relevant solutions.
Zahanat AI is the culmination of years of development, operating from a dedicated data center in Karachi since 2022. This means that the AI model’s data stays in Pakistan for processing and doesn’t go anywhere else. This data center is connected with high-speed internet and has robust DDoS protection.
The system utilizes a mixed GPU architecture, leveraging both Nvidia GPUs and chips, initially incorporating used gaming GPUs to build its computational power. It was a relatively low-cost development project. The owners said that DeepSeek cost $5 million to make, but Zahanat AI cost less, without specifying exactly how much.
Mehwish Salman Ali said:
Our goal was to create an AI that understands and responds to the specific needs of Pakistan. Zahanat AI is trained on a massive dataset of 2 billion parameters, all processed and stored within Pakistan, ensuring cultural awareness and relevance.
A key distinguishing feature of Zahanat AI is its focus on ethical and responsible AI development. The platform is specifically trained to censor sensitive topics and avoid discussions about particular individuals.
The beta launch of Zahanat AI is currently on an invitational basis, requiring interested users to submit their email and personal details, including their profession, work email, and social media accounts. This selective access aims to gather valuable feedback and refine the platform before a wider public release.
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Ali further explained:
By training Zahanat AI on Pakistan’s data, we are building a tool that can provide Pakistan-focused solutions to the diverse problems faced by our communities. We believe this technology has the potential to transform various sectors, from education and healthcare to business and governance.
For now, the beta launch has introduced Zahanat AI’s initial Z1 model, with plans to improve and expand further in the future with Z2 and so on. The Z2 model will introduce multilingual support for all languages in Pakistan and will get voice input as well.