Category: Technology

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan's top technology official said on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the island's chip dominance. Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the United States, saying he aimed to restore U.S. chip manufacturing. Wu Cheng-wen, head of Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council, did not name Trump in a Facebook post but referred to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's comments on Friday that the island would be a reliable partner in the democratic supply chain of the global semiconductor industry. Wu wrote that Taiwan has in recent years often been asked how its semiconductor industry had…

TAIPEI — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged on Friday to talk with the United States about President Donald Trump’s concerns over the chip industry and to increase U.S. investment and buy more from the country, while also spending more on defense. Trump spoke critically about Taiwan on Thursday, saying he aimed to restore U.S. manufacturing of semiconductor chips and repeating claims about Taiwan having taken away the industry he wanted back in the United States. Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential office, Lai said that the global semiconductor supply chain is an ecosystem in which the division of work among various countries is important. "We of course are aware of President Trump's concerns," Lai said. "Taiwan's government will communicate and discuss with…

Technology company Google recently broke with its long-standing policy against developing AI weapons. VOA's Matt Dibble has more from Silicon Valley. ...

At this week’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, world leaders and technologists gathered to discuss the rapidly evolving field of generative artificial intelligence. Many are eager to join the global AI race, while others are proceeding with caution. Tina Trinh reports. ...

Seoul — As a high school junior in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Daneel Kutsenko never gave much thought to China. Last month, though, as the U.S. government prepared to ban TikTok – citing national security concerns about its Chinese ownership – Kutsenko downloaded RedNote, another Chinese video-sharing app, which he felt gave him a new perspective on China. “It just seems like people who live their life and have fun,” Kutsenko told VOA of RedNote, which reportedly attracted hundreds of thousands of U.S. users in the leadup to the now-paused TikTok ban. Kutsenko’s move is part of a larger trend. Even as U.S. policymakers grow louder in their warnings about Chinese-owned apps, they have become a central part of American life. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, boasts 170 million U.S.…

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday vowed that the United States would maintain its leadership position in the development of advanced artificial intelligence and warned leaders of other countries not to adopt regulatory standards that might "kill" the new technology "just as it's taking off."  "The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way," Vance told an audience of world leaders at an AI summit in Paris. He said the administration of President Donald Trump "will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed and manufactured chips."  Vance said that the U.S. is open to collaboration with its allies. "But," he said, "to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes…

Europe says it will ease regulations on artificial intelligence at a key AI summit in Paris on Feb. 11, 2025, that brought together the U.S. and other global tech giants and politicians. But some experts see bigger challenges stalling the bloc’s ambitions to be an AI heavyweight, from the need to pool resources to attracting more investment and talent. After U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive Stargate investment project and China’s DeepSeek startup, Europe wants to get a share of the artificial intelligence pie. Among other announcements at the Paris summit, co-host French President Emmanuel Macron outlined plans for $113 billion in private AI investment. The two-day summit underscored tensions between fears of too much AI regulation and not enough. “At this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new…

Paris — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Europeans on Tuesday their "massive" regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as "authoritarian censorship." The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant. Vance, setting out the Trump administration's America First agenda, said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union's far tougher regulatory approach. "We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry," Vance told an AI summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris. "We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American…

PARIS — Europe will invest an additional $51.5 billion to bolster the bloc's artificial intelligence ambition, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday. It will come on top of the European AI Champions Initiative, that has already pledged 150 billion euros from providers, investors and industry, von der Leyen told the Paris AI Summit. "Thereby we aim to mobilize a total of 200 billion euros for AI investments in Europe," she said. Von der Leyen said investments will focus on industrial and mission-critical technologies. Companies which have signed up to the European AI Champions initiative, spearheaded by investment company General Catalyst, include Airbus, ASML, Siemens, Infineon, Philips, Mistral and Volkswagen. ...

French President Emmanuel Macron wants Europe to become a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, he told a global summit of AI and political leaders in Paris Monday where he announced that France’s private sector has invested nearly $113 billion in French AI. Financial investment is key to achieving the goal of Europe as an AI hub, Macron said in his remarks delivered in English at the Grand Palais. He said the European bloc would also need to “adopt the Notre Dame strategy,” a reference to the lightning swift rebuilding of France’s famed Notre Dame cathedral in five years after a devastating 2019 fire, the result of simplified regulations and adherence to timelines. "We showed the rest of the of the world that when we commit to a clear…

A consortium led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire's fight to block the artificial intelligence startup from transitioning to a for-profit firm. Musk's bid is likely to ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology. Altman on Monday promptly posted on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is…

PARIS — In front of political and tech leaders gathered at a summit in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a strategy on Monday to make up for the delay in France and Europe in investing in artificial intelligence (AI) but was faced with a "counter-summit" that pointed out the risks of the technology.  The use of chatbots at work and school is destroying jobs, professions and threatening the acquisition of knowledge, said union representatives gathered at the Theatre de la Concorde located in the Champs-Elysees gardens, less than a kilometer from the venue of the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence.  Habib El Kettani, from Solidaires Informatique, a union representing IT workers, described an "automation already underway for about ten years," which has been reinforced with the arrival of…

PARIS — Major world leaders are meeting for an AI summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks are expected as tech titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry. Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit from Monday. High-profile attendees include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing. “We’re living a technology and scientific revolution we’ve rarely seen,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday on national television France 2. France and Europe must seize the “opportunity” because AI "will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better and it’s up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human…

U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to make the United States the cryptocurrency capital of the world. He is putting his plan into place in the early weeks of his second presidential term. VOA's Michelle Quinn has the story. ...

Several governments, including the U.S., Taiwan and Australia, have banned the use of China’s AI software DeepSeek on official devices. Analysts say these restrictions are justified, as tests show DeepSeek not only collects excessive user data but also filters sensitive topics and promotes Chinese government narratives more aggressively than Baidu and WeChat. This raises concern that it could become a powerful tool for controlling speech and public opinion.  Click here for the full story in Mandarin. ...

Robots with reasoning power are becoming a reality thanks to massive amounts of training data and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. VOA's Matt Dibble visits a lab where robots are learning to solve problems themselves. Cameras: Matt Dibble, Tina Trinh. ...

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan duo in the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok. Lawmakers Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Darin LaHood, a Republican from Illinois, on Thursday introduced the "No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act," which would ban federal employees from using the Chinese AI app on government-owned electronics. They cited the Chinese government's ability to use the app for surveillance and misinformation as reasons to keep it away from federal networks. "The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans," Gottheimer…

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled an expanded 14-count indictment accusing former Google software engineer Linwei Ding of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for.  Ding, 38, a Chinese national, was charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with seven counts each of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.  Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term and $5 million fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and $250,000 fine.  The defendant, also known as Leon Ding, was indicted last March on four counts of theft of trade secrets. He is free on bond. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  Ding's case was coordinated through an interagency Disruptive Technology Strike…

PARIS — France hosts top tech players next week at an artificial intelligence summit meant as a "wake-up call" for Europe as it struggles with AI challenges from the United States and China. Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital on February 10 and 11 in the sumptuous Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. In the run-up, President Emmanuel Macron will on Feb. 4 visit research centers applying AI to science and health, before hosting scientists and Nobel Prize winners at his Elysee Palace residence on Wednesday. A wider science conference will be held at the Polytechnique engineering school on Thursday and Friday. "The summit comes at exactly the right time for this wake-up call for France and Europe, and…

LONDON — Britain will become the first country to introduce laws against AI tools used to generate sexual abuse images, the government announced Saturday. The government will make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate sexualized images of children, punishable by up to five years in prison, interior minister Yvette Cooper revealed. It will also be illegal to possess AI "pedophile manuals" which teach people how to use AI to sexually abuse children, punishable by up to three years in prison. "We know that sick predators' activities online often lead to them carrying out the most horrific abuse in person," said Cooper. The new laws are "designed to keep our children safe online as technologies evolve. It is vital that we tackle child sexual abuse online…

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — When Chinese startup DeepSeek released its AI model this month, it was hailed as a breakthrough, a sign that China’s artificial intelligence companies could compete with their Silicon Valley counterparts using fewer resources. The narrative was clear: DeepSeek had done more with less, finding clever workarounds to U.S. chip restrictions. However, that storyline has begun to shift. OpenAI, the U.S.-based company behind ChatGPT, now claims DeepSeek may have improperly used its proprietary data to train its model, raising questions about whether DeepSeek’s success was truly an engineering marvel. In statements to several media outlets this week, OpenAI said it is reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have trained its AI by mimicking responses from OpenAI’s models. The process, known as distillation, is common among AI developers but is…

An estimated nine million Nigerians are deaf or have hearing impairments, and many cope with discrimination that limits their access to education and employment. But one initiative is working to change that — empowering deaf people with tech skills to improve their career prospects. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja. Camera: Timothy Obiezu ...

Days after Chinese upstart DeepSeek revealed a breakthrough in cheap AI computing that shook the U.S. technology industry, the chief executives of Microsoft and Meta defended massive spending that they said was key to staying competitive in the new field. DeepSeek's quick progress has stirred doubts about the lead America has in AI with models that it claims can match or even outperform Western rivals at a fraction of the cost, but the U.S. executives said on Wednesday that building huge computer networks was necessary to serve growing corporate needs. "Investing 'very heavily' in capital expenditure and infrastructure is going to be a strategic advantage over time," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a post-earnings call. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said the spending was needed to overcome the capacity…

A small Chinese company sent shockwaves around the tech world this week with news that it has created a high-performing artificial intelligence system with less computing power and at a lower cost than ones made by U.S. tech giants. Michelle Quinn reports. ...

A report issued Wednesday by Google found that hackers from numerous countries, particularly China, Iran and North Korea, have been using the company’s artificial intelligence-enabled Gemini chatbot to supercharge cyberattacks against targets in the United States. The company found — so far, at least — that access to publicly available large language models (LLMs) has made cyberattackers more efficient but has not meaningfully changed the kind of attacks they typically mount. LLMs are AI models that have been trained, using enormous amounts of previously generated content, to identify patterns in human languages. Among other things, this makes them adept at producing high-functioning, error-free computer programs. “Rather than enabling disruptive change, generative AI allows threat actors to move faster and at higher volume,” the report found. Generative AI offered some benefits…

Washington — Just one week after its initial release, China’s new artificial intelligence assistant, DeepSeek, has shocked American financial markets, technology companies and consumers, rocking confidence in America's lead on emerging large-language models. The tool caused a nearly $1 trillion loss in market value for U.S.-based companies with connections to AI. DeepSeek has beat out ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on Apple’s app store. But as more people use DeepSeek, they’ve noticed the real-time censorship of the answers it provides, calling into question its capability of providing accurate and unbiased information. The app has gone through a series of real-time updates to the content it can display in its answers. Users have discovered that questions DeepSeek was previously able to answer are now met with the message, “Sorry, that's…

Conservationists in Kenya are using an artificial intelligence-powered application to monitor forest degradation and launch reforestation. The data collected by the application is also used to project the amount of carbon that can be stored by a growing patch of forest. Juma Majanga reports from Nyeri, Kenya. ...

Chinese researchers backed by a Hangzhou-based hedge fund recently released a new version of a large language model (LLM) called DeepSeek-R1 that rivals the capabilities of the most advanced U.S.-built products but reportedly does so with fewer computing resources and at much lower cost. High Flyer, the hedge fund that backs DeepSeek, said that the model nearly matches the performance of LLMs built by U.S. firms like OpenAI, Google and Meta, but does so using only about 2,000 older generation computer chips manufactured by U.S.-based industry leader Nvidia while costing only about $6 million worth of computing power to train. By comparison, Meta’s AI system, Llama, uses about 16,000 chips, and reportedly costs Meta vastly more money to train. Open-source model The apparent advance in Chinese AI capabilities comes after…