Microsoft debates what to do with AI Lab in China
Amid tensions between the United States and China, the company questions whether operating an advanced research laboratory in Beijing is politically tenable.
When Microsoft opened an advanced research laboratory in Beijing in 1998, it was a time of optimism about technology and China.< /p>
The company has hired hundreds of people. researchers at the lab, pioneering Microsoft's work in voice, image and facial recognition, as well as the type of artificial intelligence that later gave rise to online chatbots like ChatGPT. The Beijing operation ultimately became one of the most significant AI operations. laboratories around the world. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, saw an opportunity to tap China's "vast reservoir of intellectual talent."
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But while tensions between the United States and China heat up to see which nation will lead the world's technological future, top Microsoft executives, including Satya Nadella, its chief executive, and Brad Smith, its president, debated what it takes have been doing with this valuable lab for at least a year, four current and former Microsoft employees said.
The company has faced questions from U.S. officials about whether maintaining a 200-person advanced technology lab in China is tenable, the sources said. Microsoft said it had instituted safeguards at the lab, preventing researchers from doing politically sensitive work.
The company, based in Redmond, Washington, said that She had also opened an outpost of the lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, and would move some researchers from China to that location. The outpost provides a backup if more researchers need to move, two people said. The idea of closing or moving the laboratory came to you...
Amid tensions between the United States and China, the company questions whether operating an advanced research laboratory in Beijing is politically tenable.
When Microsoft opened an advanced research laboratory in Beijing in 1998, it was a time of optimism about technology and China.< /p>
The company has hired hundreds of people. researchers at the lab, pioneering Microsoft's work in voice, image and facial recognition, as well as the type of artificial intelligence that later gave rise to online chatbots like ChatGPT. The Beijing operation ultimately became one of the most significant AI operations. laboratories around the world. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, saw an opportunity to tap China's "vast reservoir of intellectual talent."
Open this article in the New York Times Audio app on iOS.
But while tensions between the United States and China heat up to see which nation will lead the world's technological future, top Microsoft executives, including Satya Nadella, its chief executive, and Brad Smith, its president, debated what it takes have been doing with this valuable lab for at least a year, four current and former Microsoft employees said.
The company has faced questions from U.S. officials about whether maintaining a 200-person advanced technology lab in China is tenable, the sources said. Microsoft said it had instituted safeguards at the lab, preventing researchers from doing politically sensitive work.
The company, based in Redmond, Washington, said that She had also opened an outpost of the lab in Vancouver, British Columbia, and would move some researchers from China to that location. The outpost provides a backup if more researchers need to move, two people said. The idea of closing or moving the laboratory came to you...
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