Every few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern China, embarks on a two-day journey to see her doctor. She fills her backpack with a change of clothes, a stack of medical reports and a few boiled eggs to snack on. Then, she takes a 90-minute ride on a high-speed train and checks into a hotel in the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou. At 7am the next day, she lines up with hundreds of others to get her blood taken in a…
Tag: Computing
The IMF boss is right to say ‘buckle up’ – the global economy is facing multiple menaces
Little more than 48 hours passed last week between a warning from the IMF chief, Kristalina Georgieva, that “uncertainty is the new normal” and Donald Trump’s latest tariff onslaught – this time aimed at China. Markets plunged on Friday after Trump threatened to levy punitive additional tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods in retaliation for Beijing’s blocks on exports of rare earth minerals. The world’s finance ministers and central bankers will meet in Washington this week for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. In her curtain-raiser speech…
‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China
Song-chun Zhu at Peking University, July 2025. Photograph: Sean Gallagher/The Guardian By the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. Or so it felt. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China. There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up…
Billion-dollar coffins? New technology could make oceans transparent and Aukus submarines vulnerable
Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators. The Gatling gun, the battleship, the tank. All once possessed unassailable power – then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology. “Speed and stealth and firepower,” the head of the Australian Submarine Agency, Jonathan Mead, told the Guardian two years ago of Australia’s forthcoming fleet of nuclear submarines. “The apex predator of the oceans.” But for how much longer? In the first quarter of the 21st century, nuclear submarines have proven a formidable force:…
Nvidia sets fresh sales record amid fears of an AI bubble and Trump’s trade wars
Nvidia is set to report its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, in a first test of investor appetite since last week’s mass AI-stock selloff. All eyes will be on the chipmaker’s latest financials as the company sets the tone for the rest of the AI industry after a turbulent week in the sector. Several tech stocks saw shares tumble last week amid growing questions over whether AI-driven companies are being overvalued, including an MIT report that said 95% of AI pilots fail to grow company’s revenues and statements from the OpenAI…
Box, run, crash: China’s humanoid robot games show advances and limitations
A quick left hook, a front kick to the chest, a few criss-cross jabs, and the crowd cheers. But it is not kickboxing prowess that concludes the match. It is an attempted roundhouse kick that squarely misses its target, sending the kickboxer from a top university team tumbling to the floor. While traditional kickboxing comes with the risk of blood, sweat and serious head injuries, the competitors in Friday’s match at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing faced a different set of challenges. Balance, battery life and a…
Robots run, punch and score at World Humanoid Robot Games in China – video
China is hosting the inaugural three-day World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing as it looks to showcase its advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. In total, 280 teams from 16 countries are taking part in the event, where humanoids compete in sports such as kickboxing, football and athletics. The Guardian
Trump sparks concern after suggesting he might allow sales of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips in China
Donald Trump has suggested he might allow Nvidia to sell chips in China that are more technology advanced than currently permitted, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness US artificial intelligence capabilities to supercharge its military. In a briefing on Monday, the president suggested he could “make a deal” for Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its flagship Blackwell chip in China. The move could open the door to China securing more advanced computing power from the US, even as the two countries battle for technology supremacy,…
China calls for global AI cooperation days after Trump administration unveils low-regulation strategy
Chinese premier Li Qiang has proposed establishing an organisation to foster global cooperation on artificial intelligence, calling on countries to coordinate on the development and security of the fast-evolving technology, days after the US unveiled plans to deregulate the industry. Speaking at the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, Li called AI a new engine for growth, adding that governance is fragmented and emphasising the need for more coordination between countries to form a globally recognised framework for AI. Li warned Saturday that artificial intelligence development must be…
Chinese hackers targeted Microsoft SharePoint servers, tech firm says
Microsoft says Chinese “threat actors”, including state-sponsored hackers, have exploited security vulnerabilities in its SharePoint document-sharing software servers and are targeting the data of businesses that use it. The US technology company said it had observed three groups – the Chinese state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603, which is believed to be China-based – using “newly disclosed security vulnerabilities” to target internet-facing servers hosting the platform. The announcement came amid reports in the Financial Times that Amazon was shutting down its artificial intelligence lab in Shanghai, while the…