https://www.scmp.com/rss/521892/feed Google DeepMind: A leading British-American entity in the Artificial Intelligence sector, headquartered in London with global research centres. As a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., it specialises in pioneering AI research and development. Notable achievements include AlphaFold for protein structure prediction, AlphaGo, and the development of Gemini large language models. Primarily serving scientific research, healthcare, and enhancing Google’s products, their overall business focus is on advancing... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wency Chen Wency Chen Alibaba Group Holding has reshuffled its artificial intelligence operations, creating a new top level business group and placing CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in charge as the AI and e-commerce powerhouse accelerates its push into the emerging token economy. The company said on Monday it had established the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) Business Group, which brings all its core AI teams and products together under one umbrella. This includes Tongyi Laboratory – the developer of Alibaba’s Qwen series of... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3346789/alibaba-reshuffles-ai-units-new-token-hub-group-led-ceo-eddie-wu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:19:03 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding is forming a dedicated internal task force headed by CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in a bid to funnel greater resources into its foundational AI model development efforts. On Thursday, Wu said in a letter to members of the company’s artificial intelligence research lab Tongyi that the task force would “jointly coordinate group-wide resources to accelerate foundational model development”. “In technology, standing still means falling behind,” Wu said in the letter, which was provided... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345524/alibaba-sets-new-task-force-led-ceo-eddie-wu-focus-ai-model-development?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345524/alibaba-sets-new-task-force-led-ceo-eddie-wu-focus-ai-model-development?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:00:12 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding has recruited a research scientist from Google DeepMind to bolster development efforts for its Qwen artificial intelligence models, in an internal restructuring that has seen the departure of previous technical lead Lin Junyang. While no successor to Lin was announced, former Google senior staff research scientist Zhou Hao was joining Alibaba as head of post-training research, replacing Yu Bowen, who also departed this week, two sources said. Zhou, who holds a PhD from the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3345471/alibaba-recruits-google-deepmind-contributor-join-qwen-ai-team-sources-say?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:36:39 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse President Donald Trump told the US government on Friday to “immediately” stop using Anthropic’s technology after the AI start-up rejected the Pentagon’s demand that it agree to unconditional military use of its Claude models. Anthropic insists its technology should not be used for the mass surveillance of US citizens or deployed in fully autonomous weapons systems, while the Pentagon says it operates within the law and that contracted suppliers cannot set terms on how their products are... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3344946/trump-tells-us-government-immediately-stop-using-anthropic-ai-tech?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3344946/trump-tells-us-government-immediately-stop-using-anthropic-ai-tech?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Feb 2026 22:19:58 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models, led by those from MiniMax AI and Moonshot AI, have topped global token usage, ending a year of market dominance for US developers, according to data from OpenRouter. Online AI hosting platform OpenRouter’s latest ranking reflected the increased international demand for Chinese open-source models on its site following a series of new releases. Launched around two weeks ago, the M2.5 from Shanghai-based MiniMax emerged as the most popular AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3344587/chinas-minimax-moonshot-top-ai-token-use-ranking-ending-year-us-dominance?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:30:07 +0000 Alex Capri Alex Capri 2026 has begun with a worsening trust deficit, as geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China ruptures the international system. Much of this mistrust stems from an escalating technology race. At centre stage is artificial intelligence – the foundational technology for virtually all industries, from hyper-scaled computer networks and data centres to self-learning “cognitive” machines and advanced semiconductor production. The US and China now face a prisoner’s dilemma in military... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3344163/who-will-save-world-us-china-ai-arms-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3344163/who-will-save-world-us-china-ai-arms-race?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2026 05:00:08 +0000 Coco Feng Coco Feng Chinese tech companies from Tencent Holdings to AgiBot have named millennials and even Gen Z talent as chief scientists to lead cutting-edge research into artificial intelligence and robotics. The most watched is Vinces Yao Shunyu, who turns 28 this year. He is a former researcher at OpenAI and joined Tencent in December as chief AI scientist under the CEO’s office, reporting directly to president Martin Lau Chi-ping. A graduate of Princeton University and Tsinghua University, Yao was a core... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343042/chinese-ai-and-robotics-firms-appoint-millennial-and-gen-z-rising-stars-chief-scientists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343042/chinese-ai-and-robotics-firms-appoint-millennial-and-gen-z-rising-stars-chief-scientists?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Feb 2026 04:00:07 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Cloud has unveiled its next-generation open artificial intelligence model, Qwen-3.5, in a move set to have major implications for the global AI race between China and the US. The much-anticipated release, timed on the eve of the Lunar New Year, capped a frenetic week in which nearly every major Chinese AI developer rolled out new flagship models. The two new 3.5-series models were made available on Alibaba’s cloud platform Model Studio on Monday afternoon. The new Qwen-3.5-Open-Source... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3343738/alibaba-unveils-qwen-35-sharpening-global-race-spread-ai-models?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:19:44 +0000 Holly Chik Holly Chik A Chinese AI system has outperformed its US competitors in solving geometry problems at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) level, taking less than half the time and using simpler computational resources, according to its developers. Unlike existing models confined to problem-solving, the Chinese system can also generate mathematical problems – three of which appeared in a Chinese national team qualifying exam and a top Olympiad in the United States in 2024. “We present TongGeometry, a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3341517/chinese-ai-goes-next-level-geometry-top-us-maths-olympiad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3341517/chinese-ai-goes-next-level-geometry-top-us-maths-olympiad?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:00:10 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Moonshot AI’s newest release, Kimi K2.5, has narrowed the gap between the US and China to the closest it has ever been in the development of artificial intelligence models, according to third-party evaluations. That feat by the Beijing-based start-up, founded in March 2023, has raised questions about the efficacy of US policies – most notably, export controls on advanced semiconductors – to constrain China’s AI development efforts, said Kyle Chan, a fellow of the John L Thornton China Centre at... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341580/moonshots-newest-release-narrows-us-china-ai-model-development-gap-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3341580/moonshots-newest-release-narrows-us-china-ai-model-development-gap-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:00:10 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding and Moonshot AI have unveiled their latest flagship artificial intelligence models, narrowing the gap with US industry leaders OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The new models from two of China’s leading AI developers mark the first major Chinese model releases of this year, as industry observers continue to closely monitor the gap between the US and China in developing cutting-edge foundational models. Alibaba Cloud announced its biggest-ever model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, on... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3341380/chinas-alibaba-moonshot-claim-latest-flagship-ai-models-challenge-openai-google?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:30:08 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Baidu on Thursday unveiled Ernie 5.0, a multimodal artificial intelligence model with 2.4 trillion parameters, as use of the Chinese tech giant’s AI-powered namesake assistant climbed to 200 million monthly active users. The omni-modal foundation model, capable of processing text, images, audio and video, is the Beijing-based company’s most advanced to date. The model was first previewed in November and has since climbed the rankings. A leaderboard published last week by LMArena showed... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340866/baidu-launches-ernie-50-firms-ai-assistant-users-reach-200-million-month?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:30:15 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow New Google research into DeepSeek and Alibaba Cloud’s artificial intelligence models has found that powerful reasoning models capable of “thinking” demonstrated internal cognition resembling the mechanisms underpinning human collective intelligence. The findings published on Thursday suggested that perspective diversity, not just computational scale, was responsible for the increasing “intelligence” of AI models, while also underscoring the growing importance of Chinese open models for... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3340690/google-study-finds-deepseek-alibaba-ai-models-mimic-human-collective-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:00:09 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Generative artificial intelligence service Kling AI in December recorded more than US$20 million in sales, which corresponded to an annualised revenue run rate (ARR) of US$240 million, according to Chinese operator Kuaishou Technology. That was more than double Kling AI’s US$100 million ARR in March last year, according to a statement on Tuesday from Bejing-based Kuaishou. ARR is a financial metric used to project a company’s 12-month revenue by extrapolating earnings from a shorter period, like... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339865/video-generation-boom-sees-chinas-kling-ai-post-us240-million-annual-revenue-run-rate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339865/video-generation-boom-sees-chinas-kling-ai-post-us240-million-annual-revenue-run-rate?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:15:11 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow China’s artificial intelligence efforts are unlikely to catch up with the United States in the near term despite making significant headway in recent years, according to the country’s leading AI researchers. The comments at a major industry conference in Beijing on Saturday underscored the gap between the two countries in semiconductor chips and chipmaking equipment, key resources for building out the infrastructure needed for developing cutting-edge AI models. Lin Junyang, technical lead of... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339527/china-ai-has-less-20-chance-exceed-us-over-next-3-5-years-alibaba-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3339527/china-ai-has-less-20-chance-exceed-us-over-next-3-5-years-alibaba-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:30:11 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has updated the user interface of its flagship chatbot by adding an advanced “thinking” feature, as its app recorded a massive 90 per cent jump in monthly active users (MAU) in December. The upgrades, including a deep research mode similar to OpenAI’s namesake product, marked a rare improvement on the consumer side for the Hangzhou-based firm at a time when anticipation was building over its next-generation models, analysts said. DeepSeek’s... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3338809/chinas-deepseek-adds-advanced-thinking-feature-chatbot-amid-buzz-over-next-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3338809/chinas-deepseek-adds-advanced-thinking-feature-chatbot-amid-buzz-over-next-model?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Jan 2026 01:00:49 +0000 Eunice Xu Eunice Xu Hangzhou-based biotech start-up MindRank has progressed to Phase 3 clinical trials for its weight-loss drug, making it China’s first artificial intelligence-assisted Category 1 new drug to reach this stage. MindRank announced last month that it had initiated a Phase 3 clinical trial in China for MDR-001, a small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonists designed with the help of AI. GLP-1 receptor agonists mimic natural hormones to regulate blood sugar and appetite. According to Niu Zhangming, MindRank’s... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3338618/mindrank-phase-3-trial-chinas-first-ai-assisted-new-drug-cutting-rd-costs-60?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3338618/mindrank-phase-3-trial-chinas-first-ai-assisted-new-drug-cutting-rd-costs-60?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jan 2026 02:00:16 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese start-ups Zhipu AI and MiniMax have released new flagship artificial intelligence models within hours of each other, as they vie to become the world’s leading open-source AI systems supplier. The near-simultaneous release by two of China’s “AI tigers” underscored efforts to drum up interest for their respective initial public offerings in Hong Kong, after both companies passed crucial regulatory hearings over the weekend. Beijing-based Zhipu AI, known internationally as Z.ai, on Monday... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3337516/chinese-start-ups-zhipu-and-minimax-release-latest-ai-models-ahead-hong-kong-listing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3337516/chinese-start-ups-zhipu-and-minimax-release-latest-ai-models-ahead-hong-kong-listing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:00:14 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow China’s open-source artificial intelligence models may have caught up or “even pulled ahead” of their US counterparts in capabilities and adoption, a Stanford University report has found. The country’s status as a leading AI power meant that US firms should not avoid “selective engagement” with Chinese AI labs, academics and policymakers, given the wide range of AI governance and safety challenges Chinese players faced, according to the report published on Tuesday. The report was prepared by... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3336775/chinas-open-source-ai-models-rival-us-giants-making-engagement-urgent-stanford?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3336775/chinas-open-source-ai-models-rival-us-giants-making-engagement-urgent-stanford?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Dec 2025 13:00:11 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese artificial intelligence models from Alibaba Cloud and DeepSeek have edged out US-developed models to feature in the top six of a new ranking of leading AI models’ alignment with Christian worldviews. Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen and DeepSeek’s R1 models were evaluated along with a host of leading US models as part of Colorado-based AI company Gloo’s Flourishing AI Christian (FAI-C) benchmark, which was launched on Monday. Led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, Gloo said its benchmark tested AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3336642/chinas-qwen-and-deepseek-edge-out-us-ai-models-christian-values-benchmark?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3336642/chinas-qwen-and-deepseek-edge-out-us-ai-models-christian-values-benchmark?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Dec 2025 23:00:09 +0000 Ann Cao,Ben Jiang Ann Cao,Ben Jiang Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) pose questions about whether computers will be able to match – or even surpass – human ability, and how people will be able to retain control of systems vastly smarter than themselves. The first key tipping point will be the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI), where machines match human intelligence and possess the ability to perform any intellectual task that a person can do, such as reasoning, learning and adapting across diverse... https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3336173/china-chases-superintelligent-ai-without-sci-fi-movie-risks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/plus/article/3336173/china-chases-superintelligent-ai-without-sci-fi-movie-risks?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Dec 2025 05:18:32 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Microsoft pledged to invest US$17.5 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud computing in India over four years, targeting the world’s most populous nation to help fuel its growth. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella made the announcement Tuesday after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, ahead of a tour through the country. Microsoft said the investment will focus on three pillars – scale, skills and sovereignty – which align with Modi’s goal of building a broad... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335847/microsoft-makes-us175-billion-pledge-ai-cloud-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335847/microsoft-makes-us175-billion-pledge-ai-cloud-india?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Dec 2025 04:03:04 +0000 SCMP Editorial SCMP Editorial Whenever an American breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) is announced, China is not far behind. That has long alarmed policymakers and industry insiders in the United States. Whether by handicapping China with dodgy trade sanctions and export restrictions with its allies, or handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to favoured industry players, the US just can’t shake off its Chinese competitors. China’s DeepSeek seemingly came out of nowhere when it launched in late 2023 a free,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3335201/chinas-low-cost-ai-showing-americas-high-cost-tech-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/comment/article/3335201/chinas-low-cost-ai-showing-americas-high-cost-tech-model?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Dec 2025 23:15:17 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Alibaba Group Holding’s new flagship artificial intelligence app Qwen was the fastest growing AI app in the world in November, according to third-party data released on Wednesday. Qwen recorded the highest growth in monthly active users (MAU) among AI products globally at 149 per cent, data compiled by AI product popularity tracker Aicpb.com showed. Its MAUs for the app reached 18.34 million, making it the world’s 24th most used AI app just two weeks into its public beta. Qwen’s success stemmed... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335032/alibabas-qwen-app-becomes-worlds-fastest-growing-ai-app-maus-surge-149?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3335032/alibabas-qwen-app-becomes-worlds-fastest-growing-ai-app-maus-surge-149?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:00:16 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is redirecting internal resources to speed up improvements to ChatGPT, declaring a “code red” situation that will delay work on other initiatives, according to people familiar with the matter. Altman on Monday sent an internal memo calling for a “surge” to improve ChatGPT, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information. Altman also called for staff to delay progress on other efforts such as autonomous AI agents and advertising, the... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334982/openai-ceo-declares-code-red-improve-chatgpt-rivals-google-anthropic-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334982/openai-ceo-declares-code-red-improve-chatgpt-rivals-google-anthropic-move?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2025 02:07:46 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has unveiled its most powerful model variant, DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale, which is said to match Google DeepMind’s new Gemini 3 Pro model in certain tasks, despite the Chinese firm having limited access to advanced semiconductor chips. The achievement by the open-source lab has sparked extensive discussion within the AI research community as it coincides with the prestigious annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS. In its... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334852/chinas-deepseek-challenges-google-deepmind-and-openai-new-ai-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334852/chinas-deepseek-challenges-google-deepmind-and-openai-new-ai-model?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Dec 2025 04:02:09 +0000 Ben Jiang Ben Jiang Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups Moonshot AI and MiniMax have emerged as China’s strongest contenders to rival US frontier labs in 2025 – even as DeepSeek has stolen the spotlight as the poster child for the country’s AI ambitions. Moonshot AI, founded by 33-year-old Yang Zhilin, has sharply raised its profile in China’s AI ecosystem with the launch earlier this month of Kimi K2 Thinking, an upgraded reasoning model. The system outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334602/beyond-deepseek-moonshot-and-minimax-step-chinas-new-frontier-ai-labs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334602/beyond-deepseek-moonshot-and-minimax-step-chinas-new-frontier-ai-labs?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Nov 2025 01:00:19 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow A research team led by Alibaba Cloud was the only group from China to receive a top award at this year’s NeurIPS, or the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, billed as the artificial intelligence industry’s most prestigious annual event. The research could lead to drastic improvements in the efficiency of large language models (LLMs), significantly reducing both training and inference costs for Alibaba Group Holding’s next generation of Qwen models without sacrificing... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334526/alibaba-cloud-team-wins-top-ai-award-breakthrough-model-efficiency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334526/alibaba-cloud-team-wins-top-ai-award-breakthrough-model-efficiency?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Nov 2025 13:00:19 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow There remains considerable potential to enhance artificial intelligence models by scaling up computing power and data, according to Yao Shunyu, a senior staff research scientist at Google DeepMind and former researcher at US AI start-up Anthropic. Amid heated discussions in the AI community about the future of scaling – the process of increasing computational resources and training data to develop better AI models – Yao said the method was still expected to yield results for at least a year... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334248/scaling-compute-still-fruitful-advancing-ai-google-deepmind-scientist-china-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3334248/scaling-compute-still-fruitful-advancing-ai-google-deepmind-scientist-china-says?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:00:08 +0000 Kolette Lim Kolette Lim As countries and economies around the world scramble for a slice of the growing artificial intelligence pie, Southeast Asia is also aiming to usher in a new dawn of higher productivity, fuelled by more investment and research opportunities in the technology. But tech experts warn that a deepening economic and tech divide is looming as nations in the region adopt AI at a different pace. On Wednesday, Google DeepMind announced the opening of a research lab in Singapore, focused on researching and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3333690/why-aseans-ai-ambition-may-lead-widening-economic-and-tech-divide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3333690/why-aseans-ai-ambition-may-lead-widening-economic-and-tech-divide?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:15:29 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow The release of Google DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence model has sparked debate about the future of US-China competition in AI and the ability of Chinese developers to keep up. Gemini 3 Pro, released on Tuesday, overtook OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 to give Google the top spot on leading AI benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index for the first time. The model was roundly praised by fellow industry competitors, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Lin Junyang, the technical lead of... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333446/googles-new-gemini-model-puts-chinas-start-ai-developers-defensive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333446/googles-new-gemini-model-puts-chinas-start-ai-developers-defensive?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Nov 2025 01:00:31 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg Alphabet’s Google debuted an updated version of its artificial intelligence model, Gemini, that executives said represented a “massive jump” in reasoning and coding ability. The new model, Gemini 3, will be available immediately across all of Google’s major products, including search, and can answer questions with interactive graphics. Gemini 3, like its predecessor, could process text, images and other media as well as solve complex science and maths problems, the company said. It had... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333328/google-launches-gemini-3-its-most-intelligent-ai-model-yet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3333328/google-launches-gemini-3-its-most-intelligent-ai-model-yet?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Nov 2025 01:48:48 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings is laying the groundwork for what many see as the next frontier of artificial intelligence by investing in “world models” that simulate the physical environment, according to its head of 3D generation and world modelling. China’s most valuable tech conglomerate joins a fast-growing cohort that includes Google DeepMind and Elon Musk’s xAI in exploring “spatial intelligence”, which some experts have described as “AI’s next great frontier”. On Wednesday, AI... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3332653/tencent-expands-ai-world-models-tech-giants-chase-spatial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3332653/tencent-expands-ai-world-models-tech-giants-chase-spatial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Nov 2025 13:00:19 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow An artificial intelligence model developed by Alibaba Group Holding has emerged as the top performer in a high-profile “real money, real market” experiment that pitted six leading US and Chinese systems against one another in cryptocurrency trading. In the first round of testing on US research firm Nof1’s Alpha Arena, which concluded on Tuesday, Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen3-Max model generated a 22.32 per cent return on an initial investment of US$10,000 over two weeks. Alibaba owns the South China... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331425/alibabas-ai-model-outperforms-us-rivals-crypto-trading-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3331425/alibabas-ai-model-outperforms-us-rivals-crypto-trading-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Nov 2025 04:37:33 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Leading artificial intelligence models from the United States and China are “highly sycophantic”, and their excessive flattery may make users less likely to repair interpersonal conflicts, a new study has found. The study by researchers at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University published earlier this month tested how 11 large language models (LLMs) responded to user queries seeking advice on personal matters, including cases involving manipulation and deception. In AI circles,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330922/ai-models-chinas-deepseek-alibaba-and-us-flatter-users-too-much-study-finds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330922/ai-models-chinas-deepseek-alibaba-and-us-flatter-users-too-much-study-finds?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Oct 2025 23:00:11 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow MiniMax, a leading Chinese artificial intelligence start-up, released on Monday the M2, which ranks as the world’s leading open model on a prominent leaderboard. MiniMax M2 achieved an unprecedented score for an open model on Artificial Analysis’s overall intelligence index, placing it among the top five models globally. It surpassed Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, released in June, and sat below leading models from US companies OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. With 200 billion parameters, MiniMax... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330517/chinese-start-minimax-launches-record-breaking-ai-model-challenges-google-deepmind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330517/chinese-start-minimax-launches-record-breaking-ai-model-challenges-google-deepmind?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Oct 2025 23:00:12 +0000 Iris Deng Iris Deng Chinese artificial intelligence models DeepSeek and Qwen have surged ahead of Western rivals, including GPT, with returns exceeding 100 per cent in just nine days during an ongoing real-market cryptocurrency trading competition. DeepSeek’s Chat V3.1 model grew its initial capital of US$10,000 to US$22,500 by 4pm on Monday – a 125 per cent gain since trading began on October 18 – according to the latest update from Alpha Arena, a crypto investment project launched by US research firm Nof1. Qwen 3... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330461/deepseek-and-qwen-ai-models-crush-western-rivals-cryptocurrency-trading-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3330461/deepseek-and-qwen-ai-models-crush-western-rivals-cryptocurrency-trading-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:00:24 +0000 Wency Chen Wency Chen Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Shengshu AI on Tuesday rolled out Vidu Q2, a new video-generation model aimed at challenging OpenAI’s Sora, intensifying the global race to create realistic, controllable AI-generated videos. The model allows creators to produce expressive and consistent videos using up to seven reference images to define faces, gestures, scenes or props. ShengShu said the “Vidu Q2 Reference-to-Video” feature can merge multiple unrelated elements – such as distinct... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329800/chinese-ai-start-shengshu-unveils-vidu-q2-challenge-openais-sora?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329800/chinese-ai-start-shengshu-unveils-vidu-q2-challenge-openais-sora?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2025 01:00:20 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow A new real-market cryptocurrency trading experiment that pits leading artificial intelligence models against one another to evaluate their respective investing abilities has seen a DeepSeek model outperform rivals so far. In Alpha Arena, launched on Saturday by US research firm Nof1, six large language models (LLMs) were given US$10,000 each to invest in six cryptocurrency perpetual contracts on the decentralised exchange Hyperliquid, including bitcoin and solana. As of 2pm on Tuesday,... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329784/deepseek-outperforms-ai-rivals-real-money-real-market-crypto-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329784/deepseek-outperforms-ai-rivals-real-money-real-market-crypto-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:00:22 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow China saw a massive uptick in generative artificial intelligence adoption in the first half of the year to 515 million users, with most of the users preferring domestic models, according to a state-run research organisation. The number of users more than doubled in the first six months of the year from the end of December to reach an adoption rate of 36.5 per cent, a report released on Saturday by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) found. Bolstered by advanced infrastructure... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329667/chinas-generative-ai-user-base-doubles-515-million-6-months?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3329667/chinas-generative-ai-user-base-doubles-515-million-6-months?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:00:08 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow A star Chinese artificial intelligence researcher has left Anthropic to join a rival company, citing the American AI start-up’s “anti-China statements” as a key reason for his departure. Yao Shunyu, according to a post on his website on Monday, left Anthropic after less than a year to join Google DeepMind, partly because of his “strong” opposition to the start-up’s characterisation of China as an “adversarial nation” and its broader rhetoric. Anthropic labelled China as so last month when it... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3328222/anthropics-anti-china-stance-triggers-exit-star-ai-researcher?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3328222/anthropics-anti-china-stance-triggers-exit-star-ai-researcher?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Oct 2025 10:00:16 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow Tencent Holdings’ new artificial intelligence model, Hunyuan Image 3.0, has surpassed Google DeepMind’s “Nano Banana” as the leading image-generation model among both open-source and closed products, according to a major public leaderboard. As of Saturday, the open-source Hunyuan Image 3.0 secured the top position in the text-to-image rankings on LMArena, an AI model evaluation platform originally started by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The previous leader – Google... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3328003/tencents-ai-model-hunyuan-image-30-tops-leaderboard-beating-googles-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3328003/tencents-ai-model-hunyuan-image-30-tops-leaderboard-beating-googles-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Oct 2025 10:00:15 +0000 Xinmei Shen Xinmei Shen Biomap, a biotechnology start-up co-established by Baidu founder Robin Li Yanhong and backed by the Hong Kong government, says it has surpassed Alphabet subsidiary AlphaFold in commercialising artificial intelligence foundation models for drug discovery. Multinational pharmaceutical companies were seeing a “reverse” in the technological gap between Biomap and AlphaFold, Wei Liu, co-founder and CEO of Biomap and former CEO of Baidu Ventures, said in an interview with the South China Morning... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3327390/baidu-backed-drug-discovery-start-biomap-challenges-googles-alphafold?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3327390/baidu-backed-drug-discovery-start-biomap-challenges-googles-alphafold?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Sep 2025 23:00:09 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow The Beijing-based start-up behind the popular artificial intelligence video generator PixVerse has raised US$60 million in a funding round led by Alibaba Group Holding, the largest single amount raised by a domestic AI video generation firm, according to an announcement on Wednesday. Other participants in the funding round included Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm Antler and the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund. A valuation was not disclosed. The deal comes as... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3325151/alibaba-leads-us60-million-investment-ai-video-generation-start-aisphere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3325151/alibaba-leads-us60-million-investment-ai-video-generation-start-aisphere?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Sep 2025 06:30:36 +0000 Vincent Chow Vincent Chow TikTok-owner ByteDance has launched its latest image generation artificial intelligence tool Seedream 4.0, which it said surpasses Google DeepMind’s viral “Nano Banana” AI image editor across several key indicators. ByteDance’s Seed department, which oversees the tech unicorn’s AI development efforts, said on Tuesday that Seedream 4.0 had strong image editing capabilities, putting it in direct competition with Nano Banana, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image. The US model has received... https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3325058/bytedance-unveils-new-ai-image-model-rival-google-deepminds-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3325058/bytedance-unveils-new-ai-image-model-rival-google-deepminds-nano-banana?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Sep 2025 13:00:13 +0000 Reuters Reuters In one dramatic scene of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere that just opened off the Las Vegas Strip, the audience finds themselves in the swirling tornado that rips Dorothy’s Kansas farmhouse off its moorings and hurtles it onto Munchkinland. The 1939 screen classic has been enhanced to fill a 160,000 sq ft (14,860 square metre) wall of LED panels that spans three football fields, encircling the audience and reaching 22 storeys high, as 560 kilowatt fans kick up wind and debris to simulate the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3323589/how-google-ai-helped-bring-1939-classic-wizard-oz-21st-century?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3323589/how-google-ai-helped-bring-1939-classic-wizard-oz-21st-century?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Aug 2025 09:15:08 +0000 Eric Ng Eric Ng Upstart Chinese drug innovators are joining their foreign competitors in deploying more artificial intelligence (AI) tools to reduce the costs of discoveries in an effort to shorten the route to clinical trials and commercialisation. Genscript Biotech, based in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province, is developing in-house AI tools - using its enzyme prediction database and an algorithm for altering the DNA sequence of a gene - to identify and optimise promising candidates based on protein... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3315788/chinas-drug-innovators-tap-ai-quicken-discovery-slash-costs-win-deals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3315788/chinas-drug-innovators-tap-ai-quicken-discovery-slash-costs-win-deals?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Jun 2025 23:30:08 +0000 James David Spellman James David Spellman Fledgling artificial intelligence (AI) models, the opacity of shadow banking and the euphoria over cryptocurrency are new fault lines in global finance, emerging as dangers that are more dispersed and harder to contain than those of the last crisis. Without coordinated action, we risk stumbling into another systemic breakdown, one that no financial institution or government can resolve alone. Yet, world leaders, overwhelmed by tariff flare-ups and escalating wars, are unlikely to champion needed... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3315384/3-spectres-haunting-global-finance-must-be-seen-its-too-late?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3315384/3-spectres-haunting-global-finance-must-be-seen-its-too-late?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Jun 2025 14:30:08 +0000