Baidu’s ChatGPT rival ERNIE Bot an AI letdown

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On March 16, Baidu unveiled China’s latest rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – ERNIE Bot (short for “Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration”). The “multi-modal” AI-powered chatbot can generate text, images, audio and video from a text prompt. However, ERNIE was poorly received by the public. Baidu’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell by 10% during the press conference, […]Continue Reading

Xi-Putin meet announces return of China-Russia axis

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The heirs to two of the most violent revolutions in modern history shook hands and took stock of their “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era”, at a recent meeting in Moscow. Many in the West have puzzled over this relationship between Chinese Communist Party chairman Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Some […]Continue Reading

Fed’s ‘soft landing’ likely to land in recession

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In: Asia, Business

Federal Reserve policymakers have targeted a “soft landing” for the US economy since beginning their effort a year ago to tame runaway inflation by hiking interest rates. That is, they believed they could do so without sending the US into recession. But the Fed’s decision to raise rates by a quarter point on March 22, […]Continue Reading

How Xi and Putin see a post-Ukraine war world

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Just a few days after being branded a war criminal in an international arrest warrant, Russian President Vladimir Putin was talking peace with his most important ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping. The setting for the get-together was the late-15th-century Faceted Chamber, the ornate throne room of Muscovite grand princes and czars. The main topics of […]Continue Reading

How TikTok became a US-China national security issue

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Depending on whom you ask, the short-form video app TikTok is where you watch goofy dances and makeup tutorials, or it’s a gravely sophisticated threat to US national security. Because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance – and because China is known to be interested in having its technology companiesContinue Reading

Most TikTok user information already out in the open

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The social media app TikTok has been a focus of concern that the Chinese government could access data on individual users. Whether the app poses a security risk remains unclear, but TikTok has now been banned from government devices in several countries. However, reports suggest that computer-based tools designed to collect data from publically available […]Continue Reading

ISIS-K resurgence rocks Taliban and rattles US

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Since returning to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have struggled to contain the Islamic State Khorasan province, or ISIS-K – the official Islamic State group affiliate operating in Afghanistan. Now, a fresh wave of assassination attempts on top Taliban officials has rocked multiple regions across the country and prompted fears of the group’s […]Continue Reading

Inspirational role models

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In: South-East Asia

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, a number of extraordinary women from a wide range of fields who have inspired change in their communities through the pursuit of excellence have been named the Bangkok Post’s Women of the Year.Continue Reading

US Federal Reserve in high-wire rate decision

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The Federal Reserve faces a pivotal decision on March 22, 2023: whether to continue its aggressive fight against inflation or put it on hold. Making another big interest rate hike would risk exacerbating the global banking turmoil sparked by Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on March 10. Raising rates too little, or not at all as […]Continue Reading