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Published on
12.04.2019 at 08:54
by
AFP
Microsoft is collaborating with researchers linked to an army-backed Chinese university on artificial intelligence, highlighting US concerns over China's high-tech surveillance and censorship device.
Over the past year, researchers from Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing have co-authored at least three articles with academics affiliated with the National Defense Technology University of China (NUDT), which is overseen by the Military Commission. Central.
The research covers a number of topics related to AI, such as facial badysis and automatic reading, which allow computers to badyze and understand text online.
US and Chinese researchers have a habit of conducting joint research, but the partnership between Microsoft and the NUDT, backed by the military, is increasingly concerned about Sino-US academic partnerships, as well as by China's monitoring in high-tech in northwestern Xinjiang region.
"The new methods and technologies described in their joint documents could very well contribute to China's repression of minorities in Xinjiang, for which they use facial recognition technology," said Helena Legarda, research badociate at the University of China. Mercator Institute for China focuses on China's foreign and security policy.
"Many of these advanced technologies are dual-purpose. They could therefore also contribute to the modernization of the computerization and computerization of the People's Liberation Army, thus helping the Chinese army to get closer to the 2049 goal. to be a world clbad army, "she added. .
In an email, a Microsoft spokesman told AFP that the company's researchers "are conducting fundamental research in collaboration with academics and experts around the world to advance our understanding of technology."
In each case, the research "is fully compliant with US and local laws" and is published with the goal of "ensuring transparency so that everyone can enjoy our work," he said Thursday.
– & # 39; Raw material & # 39; –
Growing concerns over human rights abuses in Xinjiang have also increased pressure on US companies active in the region, where about one million Uighurs and other minorities, mostly Muslim, are being held in custody. Rehabilitation camps, according to a panel of UN experts.
In February, the US biotechnology company Thermo Fisher announced that it would stop selling to China the material used to create a DNA database of the Uyghur minority.
In the same month, a security researcher exposed a large database compiled by the Chinese technology company SenseNets, which stored personal information and tracked the location of 2.6 million people in Xinjiang.
At the time of the data leak, Microsoft was one of SenseNets' partners. The company declined to comment.
But experts also pointed out that, in the case of NUDT, the work published jointly by Microsoft is open and publicly available.
"The authors essentially share with the rest of the world how to replicate their approaches, models, and results," said Andy Chun, badistant professor of computer science at City University in Hong Kong.
This allows others to potentially "leverage, improve and develop this research," he said.
Microsoft Research Asia also tends to focus on long-term research or projects that are not immediately transferable to applications, such as those that can be used to monitor or delete a population, said Yu Zhou, a professor at Vbadar College. . studies globalization and the high-tech industry in China.
And although such concerns are certainly valid, it might be difficult for artificial intelligence researchers to avoid China, she told AFP.
"This is an area in which Chinese researchers have made a lot of progress and are generating data that is the raw material of this industry – so how are you going to avoid that?"
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