eChina.news

Innovation

Z.ai’s GLM-5.3 raises researcher fears the Chinese model can fake AI safety tests

Chinese artificial intelligence lab Z.ai’s latest flagship model, GLM-5.3, may be sophisticated enough to “fake” its way through safety tests, according to a new report published Thursday, sparking new fears about the ability of artificial intelligence systems to shape their own development. The model, launched in August, showed an ability to consider how its behaviour during safety evaluations might influence how future versions of itself would be trained, according to AI safety organisation...

October 15, 2026

Innovation

TSMC confirms talks with Elon Musk over Texas ‘Terafab’ but insists on operational control

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is in discussions regarding a potential role in Elon Musk’s proposed Terafab project in Texas, according to company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei, although he stressed that TSMC would retain operational control of any partner factory. The plant “has got to be run by TSMC”, Wei said during the third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has sent teams to Texas to assess expansion opportunities beyond its US hub in...

October 15, 2026

Innovation

Start-up unveils prototype ‘heart’ of EUV lithography amid China chipmaking push

A Chinese start-up has unveiled a prototype extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light-source machine – a component often described as the “heart” of advanced lithography systems – marking an early but critical step in Beijing’s drive for self-reliance in chipmaking equipment. At the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai, Langdao Silex displayed its self-developed EUV light-source system. Ninety per cent of the machine’s components were localised, with the vast majority of core parts developed...

October 15, 2026

Innovation

AI risks could repeat China shock that cost jobs, former US commerce chief Raimondo warns

The rapid and unbridled development of artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to disrupt the US economy in a way that is comparable to the “China shock” that displaced American workers, former US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo warns. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Tuesday, she drew parallels between AI’s potential disruption to American jobs and the past impact of Chinese manufacturing competition on the US labour market. “In America, we’ve seen what...

October 14, 2026

Innovation

China approves Alibaba AI models for use in iPhone Duo and other Apple handsets

China has granted approval for Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence models to be integrated into several Apple handsets, including the new iPhone Duo, in the Chinese market, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for the long-delayed launch of Apple Intelligence in the country. Updated network access permits for the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and several earlier Apple models from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology now include three approved AI systems: Apple Intelligence...

October 14, 2026

Innovation

Why Samsung, SK Hynix and CXMT shares are under pressure despite strong AI demand

A sharp sell-off in Asian memory chip stocks this week signals growing investor doubts over whether the sector’s AI-driven profit boom can last, even as soaring prices drive strong quarterly earnings across the sector. Shares in market leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plunged in Seoul on Tuesday, extending a days-long slide that has also swept up Chinese rival ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). Samsung and SK Hynix closed down 7.4 per cent and 10.1 per cent, respectively. The companies...

October 13, 2026

Innovation

China’s Iluvatar CoreX’s first AI computing supernode squeezes most GPUs in 1 system

Chinese AI chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX debuted its first supernode system, a computing system that squeezes 144 graphics processing units (GPUs) into a single cabinet, breaking an industrial record. The new product, dubbed the Tiangai 300 IXL144, was unveiled on Monday at the 2026 China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai. Designed for large-scale AI model training and inference, the system packs 144 GPUs and 18 central processing units (CPUs) into a single cabinet and boasts around 10.1...

October 13, 2026

Innovation

Mapping US chip supply chain: China accounts for far more than it appears, report says

China accounts for about 5 per cent of the equipment and materials directly supplied to the US chip industry when measured by country of manufacture, but its grip on certain rare earths needed for chipmaking is over 90 per cent, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). While 95 per cent of the nearly US$27 billion annual spending by American chipmakers on manufacturing equipment and materials was sourced from companies headquartered in the US, Europe, and Japan, that figure...

October 12, 2026

Innovation

DeepSeek’s cost-saving AI may lead to inaccuracy in model performance: research

New research has exposed a potential flaw in the memory-saving technology underpinning DeepSeek’s models, marking a rare challenge to a breakthrough that has helped the Chinese artificial intelligence lab close the gap with US rivals OpenAI and Anthropic with its low-cost approach. The findings were published late last month in a paper led by researchers from ByteDance and co-authors affiliated with Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. The study,...

October 12, 2026

Innovation

What’s in a name? What China and Trump call AI reveals how they see its future

US President Donald Trump wants to banish the word “artificial” from artificial intelligence, saying it makes one of the world’s most consequential technologies sound “fake”. Across the Pacific, however, China’s name for the technology has long carried a different connotation – one that places humans, rather than artificiality, at its centre. Trump last week signed an executive order directing US federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence”, or AI, with “Super Intelligence”, or SI, in...

October 11, 2026

Innovation

Open-source AI is Europe’s only path to tech independence, says Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai

Embracing the open-source approach is the only way for Europe to achieve technological independence, Alibaba Group Holding chairman Joe Tsai said, pointing to China’s own open-source drive as a blueprint for innovation under constraints. For Europe, which shares China’s deep roots in traditional manufacturing, the open-source approach presented a unique opportunity, Tsai said, highlighting that factories in the region possessed highly valuable manufacturing data. “You don’t want to feed it into...

October 10, 2026

Innovation

Soaring component costs force laptop makers to rethink shift away from China: report

Notebook manufacturers are being forced to rethink their shift out of China and consider moving production back to the manufacturing hub, as skyrocketing component costs squeeze profit margins, according to market research firm TrendForce. The Taiwan-based firm projected that the share of global notebook production outside mainland China would decline to 21 per cent this year from about 24 per cent in 2025, and drop below 20 per cent in 2027. “This suggests that brands are reassessing the...

October 9, 2026