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China’s tech crackdown & the Jack Ma problem
China’s tech crackdown & the Jack Ma problem | GZERO World

China’s tech crackdown & the Jack Ma problem

Is the Communist Party losing support in China?

On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group, explains why wealthy Chinese citizens fear that the country is moving towards socialism and is no longer pro-business as it was in the past.

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Gang members wait to be taken to their cell after 2000 gang members were transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Handout distributed March 15, 2023.

Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via REUTERS

What We’re Watching: El Salvador’s lingering state of emergency, Northern Ireland on alert, Alibaba’s breakup, Greek election matters

El Salvador’s state of emergency one year later

This week marks one year since El Salvador’s bullish millennial president, Nayib Bukele, introduced a state of emergency, enabling his government to deal with the scourge of gang violence that has long made his country one of the world’s most dangerous.

Quick recap: To crack down on the country’s 70,000 gang members, Bukele’s government denied alleged criminals the right to know why they were detained and access to legal counsel. The arrest blitz has seen nearly 2% of the adult population locked up.

Despite these draconian measures and Bukele’s efforts to circumvent a one-term limit, he enjoys a staggering 91% approval rating.

Bukele has also sought to distinguish himself as an anti-corruption warrior, which resonates with an electorate disillusioned by years of corrupt politicians (Bukele’s three predecessors have all been charged with corruption. One is in prison; two are on the run.)

Externally, relations with the Biden administration have been icy under Bukele, with San Salvador refusing to back a US-sponsored UN resolution condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.

What matters most to Salvadorans is the dropping crime rate, which is why Bukele will likely cruise to reelection next year.

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Tech innovation can outpace cyber threats, says Microsoft's Brad Smith
Tech Innovation can outpace cyber threats, says Microsoft President Brad Smith | GZERO Media

Tech innovation can outpace cyber threats, says Microsoft's Brad Smith

AI is having a giant moment of growth, as is the ability for actors to use it nefariously. In an uncertain global environment, how can the US outpace challenges in cyberspace?

“One of the things that I find just fascinating about the development of AI…it's actually an area where if you take the problems seriously and you have an engineering team that's willing and prepared to work on a moment's notice, you can correct the problems far faster than you can solve most problems in life,” said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith at this year’s Munich Security Conference during aGlobal Stage livestream conversation, hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft.

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Can the US stay ahead of China on AI?
Charging ahead for the future of AI | Global Stage | GZERO Media

Can the US stay ahead of China on AI?

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and DeepMind is at the forefront of maintaining America’s edge in artificial intelligence.

But can America stay ahead of China in the push for AI leadership? Nic Robertson, CNN’s international diplomatic editor, puts the question to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith during a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft at the Munich Security Conference.

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How democracies nurture the growth of artificial intelligence
How Democracies Nurture the Growth of Artificial Intelligence | Global Stage | GZERO Media

How democracies nurture the growth of artificial intelligence

China wants order to beat the US in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. But open-ended research? No way — and that's a problem for Beijing.

"If you are in a society where there are certain things that you can't ask, you don't know what you can't ask, and the penalty for asking those things you don't know that you can't ask is very high ... it will start to limit the capabilities of researchers to explore," Azeem Azhar, founder of the Exponential View newsletter, says in a Global Stage livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft.

Meanwhile, he adds, the US or Europe are freer societies where culture wars hurting academic freedom are the biggest threat to AI research.

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People march during a protest against the government and rising fuel prices, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Reuters

What We’re Watching: UN mulls Haiti intervention, petrol workers join Iran protests, Biden tightens tech exports to China

Haiti pleads for help

Haiti’s spiraling social unrest has prompted Prime Minister Ariel Henry to appeal to the international community for “specialized armed forces” to help quell demonstrations and gang violence wreaking havoc across Port-au-Prince, the capital. Henry’s request comes a month after planned cuts to fuel subsidies amid an economic crisis unleashed a torrent of unrest across the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. (Protesters are demanding the resignation of Henry, who has been implicated in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and has failed to hold fresh parliamentary elections.) Making matters worse, gangs recently stormed a key fuel terminal in the capital, preventing the distribution of millions of gallons of gas, and have also looted food aid centers. As a result, hospitals and schools have been forced to close. The US, for its part, has not shut down the request, but it seems unlikely that President Joe Biden will support sending boots on the ground. Still, the deteriorating situation in the Caribbean country is not something he can afford to ignore given the uptick in Haitian migrants arriving at the US southern border over the past year. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres supports sending a rapid action force, but some experts warn that this would further inflame the situation. Indeed, Haitians have little love for the UN, whose “peacekeeping” forces (2004-2017) reportedly raped hundreds of Haitian women and girls and unleashed a cholera outbreak that killed thousands.

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Beating China at AI
Beating China at AI | GZERO World

Beating China at AI

The US and China compete on many fronts, and one of them is artificial intelligence.

But China has a different set of values, which former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is not a big fan of — especially when those values shape the AI on apps his children use.

"You may not care where your kids are, and TikTok may know where your teenagers are, and that may not bother you," he says. "But you certainly don't want them to be affected by algorithms that are inspired by the Chinese and not by Western values."

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Security flaws in China’s My2022 Olympics app could allow surveillance
China's My2022 App Flaws Compromise Security with Surveillance Threats | Cyber In :60 | GZERO Media

Security flaws in China’s My2022 Olympics app could allow surveillance

Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, Eurasia Group senior advisor and former MEP, discusses trends in big tech, privacy protection and cyberspace:

Does the Beijing 2022 Olympics app have security flaws?

Well, the researchers at the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto do believe so. And if their revelations, this time, will set off a similar storm as they did with the forensics on NSO Group's spyware company, then there will be trouble ahead for China. The researchers found that the official My2022 app for the sports event, which attendees are actually required to download and to use for documenting their health status, has flaws in the security settings. Loopholes they found could be used for intrusion and surveillance.

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