Category: Pl

Artificial intelligence (AI) may look automated, but it runs on human labour. Behind every chatbot and image generator are thousands of people labelling images, tagging text, moderating content and training systems to understand language and culture. This invisible workforce has quietly become a critical layer of the global AI economy. India has emerged as a major hub for this work. Its large English-speaking workforce and long history in information technology outsourcing have made it a go-to location for data annotation, content moderation and AI training support. However, much of this…

China is looking to escalate measures against cybercriminals operating inside and outside its borders by banning convicted citizens from leaving the country, even after they have completed their sentence. The draft Cybercrime Prevention and Control Law bill comes as China doubles down on working with Southeast Asian countries to crack down on cross-border online fraud. The bill, which aims to impose an exit ban on Chinese found guilty of cross-border online crimes for up to three years after serving their sentence, was announced by Beijing’s public security ministry on Saturday.…

South China Morning Post

South China Morning Post

China secured the most new shipbuilding orders globally in 2025 despite a slight dip in market share, showing enduring market dominance amid industry turbulence sparked by US threats targeting the Chinese maritime sector, official data showed. Chinese shipyards secured 107.8 million deadweight tonnage (DWT) in new orders in 2025 – a 4.6 per cent year-on-year decline – accounting for 69 per cent of the global market, down from a 74.1 per cent share in 2024, according to data released on Sunday by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry…

Alibaba Group Holding has joined rivals including Tencent Holdings and Baidu in rolling out Spring Festival red-packet giveaways to drive mass-market adoption of its artificial intelligence, committing 3 billion yuan (US$432 million) to spur spending across its ecosystem as it seeks to extend its edge in foundational models to consumer-facing products. The Hangzhou-based e-commerce and AI giant said on Monday that its AI app Qwen would anchor a Spring Festival campaign across its flagship shopping platform Taobao, on-demand retail and food-delivery service Shangou, online travel agency Fliggy, ticketing platform Damai,…

The People’s Liberation Army’s anti-corruption investigations into top general Zhang Youxia and others will eliminate a watered down combat capability and give new momentum to the military’s development, according to a commentary by its mouthpiece the PLA Daily. “The resolute investigation and punishment of corrupt officials such as Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli removes obstacles and stumbling blocks that hinder the development of our cause,” it said in a front-page editorial on Monday. “It eliminates the watered down parts of combat capability building and inspires the spirit of hard work…

China’s frontier artificial intelligence labs are ending the lunar year on a high note, racing to release a series of new AI models in the last few weeks of the Year of the Snake as the country gears up to celebrate the start of the Year of the Horse. Beijing-based Zhipu AI and Shanghai-quartered MiniMax, which just made their stock exchange debuts in Hong Kong, would be the next to update their flagship AI systems with across-the-board enhancements, according to sources familiar with their release plans. Zhipu AI, known as…

Chinese scientists have developed a hydrogel cooling coating for solar panels to boost power output by 13 per cent compared to conventional photovoltaic systems. The transparent layer can reduce the temperature of “hotspots” – overheated areas on solar cells caused by defects, shading from leaves, bird droppings or dirt – by 16 degrees Celsius, or nearly 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Hotspots are a common cause of solar panel failure and fire risk. “On a global scale, our developed cooling strategy can offset around 50 per cent of power generation loss caused…