Asia's Tech News, Weekly: July 24th 2024

Cambodia-UN digital credentials, China's socialist LLMs, Pacific Islands cybersec, 1nm semiconductors, 30K staff for Huawei R&D, HK stablecoin developments, biometric authentication in Japan...

• Singapore: Monetary Authority commits up to Sg$100M for capabilities development around quantum tech and AI in the financial sector

• Australia-led Cyber & Critical Tech Cooperation Program to launch in August to train Fiji and Papua New Guinea SMEs on awareness and response to online scams & cybercrime

• China: Government is testing AI companies’ large language models to ensure systems 'embody core socialist values' in latest expansion of the country’s censorship regime

• Asia Blockchain Summit is set for Taipei, August 6-8, with speakers including Vitalik Buterin

• Palau: Japan's Soramitsu, firm behind Cambodia's Bakong central bank digital currency, to build Pacific island nation of Palau's digital gateway to bond markets

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China's robotaxis challenges: "Base fares start as low as 4 yuan (55 cents), compared with 18 yuan ($2.48) for a taxi driven by a human..."

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• Australia: NSW Space+ Program grants program launches, in part aiming to showcase Australian space-tech to international stakeholders in 2025

• China: 3rd phase of 'Big Fund' has been established with registered capital of $47BN to focus on semiconductors and other strategic, critical and emerging technologies

• TSMC and ASML near final agreement on purchase of next-gen extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment for semiconductor production, with sights on 1nm process

• China: Huawei has completed construction of $1.4BN Lianqiu Lake R&D centre in Shanghai, with 30,000 personnel set to work on semiconductors, wireless technologies, IoT and more

• Cambodia: UNDP to partner Switzerland's Dfinity Foundation for Universal Trusted Credentials trial, a digital credentialing system using Internet Computer Protocol blockchain tech

2024 Singapore FinTech Festival

• China: Huawei-ZGCMC partnership preps to integrate AI and LLMs across industries including mining, bulk transport, equipment manufacturing, cloud computing and beyond

• India: WazirX crypto exchange halted withdrawals following security breach that resulted in the loss of $230M, near half its reserves

• Japan: Softbank and NEC, info-tech and electronics multinational, ink alliance for biometric authentication to speed digital transformation for enterprises and local governments

• US Commerce Dep't to award Taiwan's GlobalWafers up to $400M in grants for Texas and Missouri plants to significantly boost silicon wafer production

• China: State-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Tech preps for launch capability boost with approaching 1st launch of Long March 12, capable of 12000kg payload delivery

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"...to accommodate data center servers that are able to do AI computing requires massive upgrades and a total redesign of standards... at least 50% higher [cost] than typical data centers."

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• Huawei is suing Taiwan's MediaTek mobile chip developer over alleged IP infringement, in part to offset impacts of US-led tech restrictions by generating licensing fees and royalties

• Hong Kong Monetary Authority announces batch 1 participants for stablecoin sandbox, with firms including Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands and HK Telecommunications

• Available now: 'Money Laundering in Australia - National Risk Assessment' from AUSTRAC

• China adds a 5th Gaofen-11 hi-res imaging satellite to CHEOS constellation, believed capable of image resolution of around 10cm, likely for both civilian and military use

• Download: 'Asia Pacific Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 - Helping workers adapt to change in an age of transformation' from PwC

• Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering proposes 21-satellite network around the moon to provide real-time, high-precision navigation and monitoring

• Singapore state investment giant, Temasek, to invest up to $10BN in India over 3 years, seen in part as a response to underperformance on China investments

• Australia: $8M Bio Innovation Hub formally launched at La Trobe University's Melbourne campus, offering lab facilities to early-stage companies looking to commercialise research

• Hong Kong's global digital assets hub bid continues with Monetary Authority and Financial Services & Treasury Bureau proposing licensing regime for stablecoin issuers

• China: 'The upper stage of China’s Long March 6A rocket appears to be creating numerous pieces of space debris, adding to the growing issue of orbital debris.'

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"A major Cambodian payments firm received crypto worth over $150,000 from a digital wallet used by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus, blockchain data shows..."

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• Hong Kong: Government departments to use a locally-developed ChatGPT-style tool, following OpenAI's block on access to its model for the city and mainland China

• '3 key takeaways from the soft launch of GenAI Fund’s ASEAN GenAI Startup Report' via e27

• China: Xiaomi smartphone giant unveils $330M fully-automated manufacturing, claiming 24/7 operation with no human intervention and targeting annual production of 10M phones

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"Operating 24/7 without human intervention, [Xiaomi] dark factory offers significant cost savings through reduced labor expenses and elimination of lighting, heating, and cooling costs"

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• Taiwan: National Science & Tech Council unveils draft AI regulations, with public feedback open to mid-September

• Japan: Sei Foundation launches $50M Japan Ecosystem Fund focusing on Web3 gaming, social, and entertainment use cases for blockchain tech

• Hong Kong: 3 individuals arrested, accused of stealing HK$3.11 million (~$400,000) worth of Tether (USDT), seizing near 11,000 fake banknotes from the scammers' office

Deloitte: Generation AI

• SEA e-commerce: Shopee retained 48% market share lead in 2023; TikTok Shop now 2nd-largest ecommerce platform in SE Asia; Vietnam & Thailand the fastest-growing markets in 2023

• Australia: 4 startups raised a total of $123.6 million in the week to July 19th - here's a quick intro to each

• Philippines: An intro to Toki, focusing on digital collectibles and offering over 100K items for sale in live auctions, now looking at K-Pop, fashion and luxury sectors

• TOKEN2049 is set for September 18-19 in Singapore, gathering entrepreneurs, institutions, industry, investors and leaders in cryptocurrencies and blockchain

• Australia: IIF - Invest Inya Farmer - co-op, an investment platform allowing individuals to back agricultural assets like crops and livestock and get a share of the profits upon sale

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"...reports indicate that Chinese companies have accessed Nvidia's latest AI chips... on the US export control list, through overseas servers of American companies Google and Microsoft."

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• Hong Kong’s proposed stablecoin regulatory regime - key takeaways from consultation conclusions, provided by King & Wood Mallesons

• Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Ass'n calls for amended legislation to protect intellectual property rights in response to AI service copyright infringements

• "...98 out of 100 Hong Kong companies surveyed admitted to facing such breaches in their systems, compared with 93% globally, underscoring the city’s ongoing vulnerability to such scams."

• Australian Federation Police Association supports establishment of one-stop portal for victims to report AI deepfakes to the police, following Attorney General's June legislation

• 'Why robotaxis can make cities safer vs why robotaxis have no place in the city' via Bloomberg

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ICYMI: Google Workplace commences integration of Google Vids, an AI-powered video creation app capable of generating end-to-end video from text prompts

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• Samsung Electronics' external startup incubator, C-Lab Outside, opens applications to August 14 for firms in AI, robotics, IoT devices, digital health, content and more

• International Fund for Public Interest Media has launched a new grant program to support selected media outlets in the Philippines over the next three years

• Study on Demand and Supply Potential of Hydrogen Energy in ASEAN and East Asia – Phase 4 overview available now from the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN & East Asia

• Download: 'Tokenization of Money - e-HKD and the future of global money movement' from Visa with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank (pdf link)

• Philippines: An overview of the DTI's economic blueprint to develop the Philippines as a global powerhouse, with tech and startups as key drivers

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» "GenAI's 'hallucinations,' 'confabulations' and errors aren't random bugs — they're a fundamental part of how this technology works."

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In wider-world technology news:

» The United Nations Development Program's Universal Trusted Credentials project, looking at transforming access to finance for MSMEs and beyond using blockchain

» Coalition for Secure AI launches with Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, PayPal and a host of other major firms as founding sponsors

» "Companies and projects in the 'Web3/NFT/DAO/Metaverse/Gaming' category raised the largest share of crypto VC capital in Q2 2024 (24%), totaling $758m in VC fundraising."

» Available now: 'Crypto & Blockchain Venture Capital – Q2 2024', the quarterly industry overview report from Galaxy

» "In JD Vance bitcoiners see one of their own... Not only does [Vance] own a lot of bitcoin (at least he did in 2022...) but he’s championed crypto as an alternative to mainstream finance"

» OpenAI launches new AI model, GPT-4o mini, proclaiming it the most capable and cost-efficient small model available today, with plans to integrate image, video and audio

» The state of AI in early 2024', results of a survey conducted by McKinsey & Co

» Download: 'The Case for Confidential Computing - Delivering Business Value Through Protected, Confidential Data Processing' from the Linux Foundation

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"One peer-reviewed study suggested A.I. could make up 0.5 percent of worldwide electricity use by 2027, or roughly what Argentina uses in a year."

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