Risk partner: the best American universities have taken funds from a Chinese company related to the security of Xinjiang

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at least one other university have entered into research partnerships with a Chinese artificial intelligence firm that has commercial relations with the police in China's Xinjiang region, where a crackdown widespread against the Uighurs sparked international condemnation.

In 2016, as part of a public procurement announcement, an affiliate of iFlytek was designated as the sole provider of 25 voice recording collection systems to police in Kashgar, Xinjiang city. Another subsidiary of iFlytek has signed a "strategic cooperation framework agreement" with the Xinjiang Prison Administration Bureau, according to an article published on the company's blog in May 2017 on the WeChat social media platform.

Authorities can use voiceprinting technology, which captures the unique signatures of a person's voice, to help locate and identify people, say human rights activists.

Reuters found no evidence that the universities directly participated in the creation of technologies for iFlytek, nor that their work was intended to be used in Xinjiang, where the Uighurs, a minority Muslim group, are closely monitored. , especially in "re-education camps".

However, some US universities are taking a closer look at their collaborations with Chinese technology companies in the light of the US-China trade dispute, Washington's control over telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei, and reports of human rights violations. the man in Xinjiang.

The MIT, for example, announced in April that it would sever relations with Huawei and its rival ZTE, which, according to the US government, poses a security risk. Other institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley, have also terminated Huawei's funding for all research partnerships.

iFlytek declined to comment on its relationship with Chinese security agencies in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the country. In a statement sent via WeChat, a representative told Reuters that "some of the cooperation and content relate to security issues."

The company added that the research at MIT is "based on a common understanding of the use of artificial intelligence to build a beautiful world" and that iFlytek was a "socially responsible society".

Last year, MIT announced the signing of a five-year agreement under which iFlytek would help finance three research projects at the world's leading computer and artificial intelligence laboratory (CSAIL). university.

Projects concern AI in health care; speech recognition; and what CSAIL described in its announcement as creating a "more human AI".

"CSAIL understands and has taken into account the concerns that have been expressed about this work," laboratory spokesman Adam Conner-Simons said in an email to Reuters. "But we decided that it was nevertheless appropriate to continue, as the results of the three projects can be published in an open scientific literature, and the research should not have immediate applications.

Randall Davis, one of the researchers at MIT, said that iFlytek had not interfered in his health-focused research, which focused on the use of drugs. an AI-based analysis to help diagnose a cognitive decline.

"We want a system that really understands what you're talking about or what you really want to look at on your face," said Davis, a professor of engineering and computer science.

He added that iFlytek had sent no one to work in his lab and that he did not have exclusive access to the results of his research.

Dana Penney, director of neuropsychology at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass., Who works with CSAIL, said the research was "of the highest ethical and professional standard." Jim Glass, who does language research at MIT, said iFlytek was not involved in the work of his team.

Joshua Tenenbaum, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science, who also conducts research at MIT as part of the partnership with iFlytek, has not responded to requests for comment.

VOICE IMPRESSION SYSTEMS

In November 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology appointed iFlytek, founded in 1999, national champion of AI related to voice.

China Mobile, the state-owned telecommunications operator, is the largest shareholder of iFlytek, with a 12.85 percent stake, according to its 2018 annual report, released in April.

On May 13, 2016, the Kashgar Public Security Bureau announced that it had purchased a wholly owned subsidiary of iFlytek, iFlytek Intelligent Information Technology Co., as a supplier of 25 collection systems. Voice prints. Reuters could not verify with the authorities of iFlytek or Xinjiang if the contract had been executed.

On May 3, 2017, another subsidiary of iFlytek, whose name translates as "Xinjiang iFlytek," signed a strategic agreement with the Xinjiang Prison Administration Bureau to cooperate in the interpretation and the translation of human speech and court documents, according to a message dated May 6, 2017., on an iFlytek company blog.

The Xinjiang government has not responded to a request for comment regarding one or the other of the documents. The Xinjiang Prison Office also failed to respond to a request for comment and forwarded it to the Xinjiang Propaganda Department. The Propaganda Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The Government Procurement Database contains 31 other documents bearing the name iFlytek Intelligent Information Technology or an earlier name for the same company as a provider of voiceprint products or services to 25 police departments in China and the Ministry. Public Security between 2014 and 2018. Police Department of Anhui, east China province where is based iFlytek.

Eight police departments and the Ministry of Public Security confirmed that they were using or still using the iFlytek voiceprinting technology; nine could not be contacted or referred requests to other departments that could not be contacted; five stated that they were not aware or were not aware of these contracts; and three refused to comment.

Gao Kang, a police officer from Jixi County, Anhui Province, confirmed that his department had purchased iFlytek voiceprint collection equipment in 2015 and was still using it.

"Suspected criminals or people suspected of breaking the law must have their fingerprints collected when they enter our business processing area," he said by phone.

Maya Wang, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that she and a colleague had interviewed people in Xinjiang in May 2018 who had been taken to a police station and invited to read a newspaper, sing a song or to tell a story in front of a machine. who seemed to record them. iFlytek refused to say anything about his technology.

Activists say China holds more than one million people in detention camps in Xinjiang. The authorities have deployed various biometric technologies to track the population.

China said its actions were justified by the need to suppress Islamist extremism. In March, the governor of Xinjiang described the camps as "boarding schools".

DUE DILIGENCE

Although the MIT donation is the latest in a series that iFlytek has paid in recent years for research purposes, the company has other collaborations in North America.

In October 2015, York University in Toronto, Canada, announced that iFlytek donated $ 1.5 million to the University's Lassonde School of Engineering to create a neural computing and learning-by-doing lab. the machine and create a teacher position.

Yanni Dagonas, a representative from York University, said in an email that the 2015 iFlytek donation supported existing research, that the research results were made public and that the research was not technology-related. the voice print.

"York does not accept gifts when a condition of this acceptance would result in a reduction of academic freedom or integrity," reads the statement. The university added that it was not aware of the company's activities in Xinjiang.

In April 2017, Rutgers Business School announced that it had accepted a million dollars from iFlytek for a five-year effort to create a big data lab exploring data mining and business intelligence, according to the school website.

In a statement, the school called the work "research on data mining methods that can be used by the company to improve its marketing effectiveness." The agreement was terminated mutually in February, without specifying why.

In its 2018 annual report, iFlytek touted what it called "strategic cooperation" with Princeton University. The partnership covers applied and computer mathematics, he said in a message posted Wednesday on his website and inaccessible.

Ben Chang, a spokesman for Princeton, confirmed in a statement that iFlytek had made "a gift to support basic research conducted by a faculty member", while stating that there had been no strategic cooperation agreement. Professors must follow a due diligence process before signing the agreements, he added.