Baidu's Ernie Bot Debut

 Chinas Ernie Bot Doesn't do so well in first demo.  But the design of the western version is well known, so don't expect this lead to last. 

China’s ChatGPT rival Baidu Ernie is off to a rough start   From TechCrunch

Rita Liao@ritacyliao,  March 16, 2023

Baidu, China's search engine giant, introduced its Ernie Bot.

Following on the heels of GPT-4’s buzzy debut and the announcement of Microsoft 365’s AI makeover, Baidu, China’s search engine giant, introduced its Ernie Bot.

Since ChatGPT blew the world away, Baidu has been widely considered the closest Chinese candidate to build an equivalent to the OpenAI chatbot. Naturally, Ernie’s launch was much anticipated. On Thursday, Baidu CEO Robin Li gave a one-hour presentation on Ernie that only offered a small glimpse into the chatbot. The jury is still out on what Ernie can do and how it actually works.

For now, Ernie is only available for testing through invitation and others need to get on a waitlist. TechCrunch hasn’t tried it yet, so it’s unfair to draw any conclusions about Ernie’s capability.

But the public was clearly underwhelmed. Industry observers inside and outside China pointed to the fact that rather than showcasing Ernie through a live demo, Baidu opted for a lengthy presentation with pre-recordings of Ernie’s answers. The company’s shares slumped as much as 10% in Hong Kong following Li’s presentation.

In slides, Li presented the prompts for Ernie and its answers in five functional areas:

Literature writing: The user asked Ernie for advice on writing a sequel to the celebrated sci-fi novel “The Three-Body Problem.”

Business writing: The user asked Ernie to suggest names for a large-language model company that helps small-and-medium enterprises digitize.

Logic and reasoning: Ernie was asked to solve the famous “chickens and rabbits” math puzzle.

Chinese interpretation: Ernie was asked to define a traditional Chinese idiom and write a poem based on the phrase.

Multi-modal generation: Ernie was given a question (“Which city is most suited for implementing smart transport?”) and asked to perform “multi-modal” tasks based on the initial prompt, such as reading the answer out in a Chinese dialect and generating an image based on the text.

Baidu evidently did try to demonstrate what Ernie could achieve, and the answers were satisfactory; but still, investors weren’t impressed by the carefully orchestrated reveal. One can’t help but wonder if Baidu avoided a live demo due to its lack of confidence, and whether it had rushed the launch because of OpenAI’s impressive advancement. After all, even AI titan Google made a mistake in the demo of its conversational AI Bard.

Fangbo Tao, CEO and founder of AI startup Mindverse and a former AI scientist at Alibaba and Facebook, echoed the sentiment.    ....'

Race to the Moon?

 I continue to be interested in the supply chain processes involved.

China and NASA are racing to the moon. Side-by-side photos hint NASA has the edge, but China's secrecy makes the race hard to call.    By Morgan McFall-Johnsen Nov 30, 2022 in BusinessInsider

two rocket launches at night split image with Long March-2F on the left and nasa space launch system on the right

China's Shenzhou 15 mission, left, lifted off on Tuesday, one week after NASA launched its Artemis I mission to the moon, right. CNS/AFP/Getty Images; NASA/Joel Kowsky

China and NASA are racing toward the first human moon landing in 50 years.

Two recent launches suggest NASA has an edge, but China could be close behind.

Side-by-side images show how NASA and China are overlapping in the new space race for the moon. ... ' 

China Breaks Memory Entanglement Distance

This came up recently for an application proposal. 

 China Breaks Record for Quantum Memory Entanglement Distance

Tom's Hardware

Francisco Pires, August 17, 2022

Researchers in China have entangled two quantum memories across a record distance, bringing a quantum Internet a step closer to realization. The entangled memories could maintain coherence and transfer a photon between two separate laboratories, because the entangled quantum bits correlate so that their states cannot be described separately. The researchers entangled one quantum memory in the first lab and excited it with a laser, releasing the excess energy as a photon when the memory reverted to its ground state. A fiber-optic cable then transmitted the photon 12.5 kilometers (7.7 miles) from an original node to the destination node, allowing the researchers to entangle a new quantum memory. The researchers said they bypassed the photon's low energy using "the quantum frequency conversion technique to shift the photon's wavelength to 1,342 nm [nanometers] instead, which improves the overall transmission efficiency significantly."  ... ' 

Ukraine Sounds Alarm on Chinese Drones

China Drones in play? 

 Ukraine Sounds Alarm on Chinese Drones, Opening Skies to U.S. Startups

The Wall Street Journal,  Heather Somerville,   April 22, 2022

Hundreds of small drones from U.S. startups are searching for survivors and Russian hideouts in Ukraine, after Ukrainian government officials cited Chinese drones as a security risk. The Ukraine officials have called for limits on the deployment of drones made by China's SZ DJI Technology, saying technical glitches may have been intentionally inserted into the drones to undermine the country's defense. Since last month, Seattle-based BRINC Drones has contributed 10 drones to Ukraine and sold roughly 50 more to bolster Ukrainian defense, as well as for search-and-rescue and intelligence-gathering missions. Skydio's Adam Bry said his company gave dozens of drones to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, and sold hundreds more to Ukraine-supporting government and non-government entities.... ' 

China Tech Giants Driving Africa

Had seen other indications of this,

Huawei, Kunlun and China’s tech giants drive a quiet revolution in Africa’s fintech with mobile payment apps and wallets   in SCMP

One of Africa’s biggest mobile wallets is M-Pesa, established in 2007 by the Kenyan phone company Safaricom, using Huawei’s enterprise solution

Zhou Yahui of Beijing Kunlun Technology is behind the Nigerian e-commerce and payment company OPay  ...