Information/Technology - 13. page

Due to the U.S. ban on TikTok, a surge of foreign users has recently appeared on Rednote, another Chinese social media platform. Media reports suggest that e-commerce Multi-Channel Network (MCN) companies are mass-producing “fake foreigners,” creating fraudulent accounts en masse.

These companies’ core strategy involves closely monitoring trending posts on the platform, extracting keywords and content structures, and then mass-producing similar content. Each of their employees manages multiple accounts, generating over a dozen posts per day, handling everything from image editing to content rewriting and posting.

On Rednote, “foreigners” can easily gain thousands or even tens of thousands of followers with just a single post. Thus, many domestic Chinese MCN companies have started mass-registering “fake foreigner” accounts with Western names and profile pictures featuring Westerners’ faces. These accounts often post content stolen from real overseas users.

Users have noticed that some so-called “foreign bloggers” post English content with grammatical errors, yet their Chinese is as fluent as that of a native speaker. Some of their profile pictures also appear unnatural, with mismatched skin tones. Others blatantly repost content from foreign influencers without even removing the original watermark. Some investigations on Rednote have found that many posts – from accounts with different usernames and featuring different individuals – use identical caption templates, sometimes even failing to change the names in their self-introductions.

Source: Epoch Times, January 26, 2025
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/25/1/26/n14422251.htm

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that, in a paper published in June this year, six Chinese military researchers detailed how they used an early version of Meta’s Llama large language model (LLM) to build their ChatBIT model. These researchers named on the publication are from the Military Scientific Information Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, the National Defense Science and Technology Innovation Institute, the Beijing Institute of Technology, and the Minzu University of China.

The Chinese researchers utilized the Llama 2 13B large-scale language model released by Meta in February 2023. Combined with their own parameters, they built a military-focused artificial intelligence tool for collecting and processing intelligence to provide accurate and reliable information for combat decision-making. The paper states that, after fine-tuning, ChatBIT was optimized for question-and-answer tasks in the military field and that its performance exceeded other artificial intelligence models.

Reportedly, the Chinese models are approximately 90 percent as capable as OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4. The Chinese researchers did not elaborate on how they measured performance or on whether the AI model is already in use in the field.

Meta has publicly released many AI models, including Llama, and has imposed licensing restrictions on the use of these models. Specifically, Meta prohibits the use of its models for “military, war, nuclear industry and espionage.” Meta’s public policy director Molly Montgomery said “Any use of our model by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is unauthorized and violates our acceptable use policy.”

A fierce debate is ongoing in the U.S. national security and technology community over the consequences of technology companies such as Meta making their models public.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, November 1, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20241101-5283840

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that TechInsights, a technology research company, discovered TSMC chips when disassembling Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor (which contains multiple chips). TSMC notified the United States after learning of the news. The chips ordered from TSMC by Chinese company SOPHGO are consistent with the chips found in Huawei’s Ascend 910B multi-chip processor. To protect U.S. national security, Huawei was banned from purchasing this technology. TSMC decided to stop supply after discovering that the chips supplied to this customer were ultimately used in Huawei products.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said it was aware of reports of possible violations of U.S. export control regulations but did not comment on whether there were related investigations underway. SOPHGO, which is affiliated with cryptocurrency mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain, did not respond to a request for comment. Huawei did not respond to a request for comment either. TSMC declined to comment.

Source: RFI Chinese, October 26, 2024
https://tinyurl.com/2uwaw84r