ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will restrain its AI video-making tool, after threats of legal action from Disney and a backlash from other media businesses, according to reports. The AI video generator Seedance 2.0, released last week, has spooked Hollywood as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt. Several big Hollywood studios have accused the tool of copyright infringement. On Friday, Walt Disney reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance which accused it of supplying Seedance with…
Tag: Technology
Chinese technology underpins Iran’s internet control, report finds
Iran’s architecture of internet control is built on technologies from China, according to an analysis published by a British human rights organisation. The report by Article 19 says the technologies include facial recognition tools used on Uyghurs in western China and a Chinese alternative to the US-based GPS system, BeiDou. The report outlines the policies and imported hardware behind the growth of Iran’s fine-tuned censorship regime, which allowed authorities to almost entirely cut off its 93 million people from the global internet during the height of January’s anti-government protests. The…
‘Was I scared going back to China? No’: Ai Weiwei on AI, western censorship and returning home
Ai Weiwei is talking me through the decision-making process before his first visit to China in over a decade. The artist, known around the world as the most famous critic of the Chinese communist regime, had to do some fraught arithmetic before deciding to head back home. Before boarding a flight with his son, who had never met the artist’s elderly mother, Ai thought back to his time in detention when his captors told him he would spend the next 13 years in custody on bogus charges: “They said, ‘When…
Chinese carmaker Chery to launch fourth brand in UK
The Chinese carmaker Chery is launching a fourth brand in the UK, continuing a push into the British market where it has rapidly become a major player. The state-owned company said on Wednesday it would sell cars under the Lepas brand, which is developing battery and hybrid SUVs aimed at younger families, mainly in the European market. The decision to add a fourth brand in the UK underlines Chery’s efforts to win market share. The Lepas cars will be built initially in China and imported to the UK, which does…
Alarm raised over Chinese CCTV cameras guarding ‘symbol of democracy’ Magna Carta
Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged. In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. They have also written to the authorities responsible for the Parthenon temple in Greece, which is monitored…
Burner phones and lead-lined bags: a history of UK security tactics in China
When prime ministers travel to China, heightened security arrangements are a given – as is the quiet game of cat and mouse that takes place behind the scenes as each country tests out each other’s tradecraft and capabilities. Keir Starmer’s team has been issued with burner phones and fresh sim cards, and is using temporary email addresses, to prevent devices being loaded with spyware or UK government servers being hacked into. The employment of such tactics may sound dramatic but they are par for the course in an age of…
China lags behind US at AI frontier but could quickly catch up, say experts
Beijing’s AI policy is focused on real-life applications but Chinese companies are beginning to articulate their own grand visions Standing on stage in the eastern China tech hub of Hangzhou, Alibaba’s normally media-shy CEO made an attention-grabbing announcement. “The world today is witnessing the dawn of an AI-driven intelligent revolution,” Eddie Wu told a developer conference in September. “Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only amplify human intelligence but also unlock human potential, paving the way for the arrival of artificial superintelligence (ASI).” ASI, Wu said, “could produce a generation…
China blocks Nvidia H200 AI chips that US government cleared for export – report
Suppliers of parts for Nvidia’s H200 have paused production after Chinese customs officials blocked shipments of the newly approved artificial intelligence processors from entering China, according to a report. Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which appeared in the Financial Times citing two people with knowledge of the matter. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment made outside regular business hours. Nvidia had expected more than one million orders from Chinese clients, the report said, adding that its suppliers had been operating around the clock…
Freedom from China? The mine at the centre of Europe’s push for rare earth metals
It is deep winter with temperatures dropping to -20C. The sun never rises above the horizon, instead bathing Sweden’s most northerly town of Kiruna in a blue crepuscular light, or “civil twilight” as it is known, for two or three hours a day stretching visibility a few metres, notwithstanding heavy snow. But 900 metres below the arctic conditions, a team of 20 gather every day, forgoing the brief glimpse of natural light and spearheading the EU’s race to mine its own rare earths. Despite identification of several deposits around the…
Five tech trends we’ll be watching in 2026
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy New Year’s Eve filled with cheer, champagne and Mariah Carey’s comically awful rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Today, we’re looking forward to the next year in technology news. I am watching five trends I think will define the year: datacenters will see rapid proliferation beyond the US and China; billionaires will reap billions more; self-driving cars will park themselves in a slew of brand-new locales; AI will find its niche at work; and consumer tech will…