What you need to know
- The US and China's long-term rivalry continues to brew more trouble.
- Following Biden's administration Executive Order placing guardrails on AI, there's a debate on whether Microsoft should continue running its operations in its Beijing-based AI tech lab.
- The Executive Order prevents chipmakers like NVIDIA from shipping GPUs to China over security concerns.
Over the past few years, tension has built between the United States and China, predominantly over superiority in the technology landscape. With the emergence of AI, this battle has only gotten fierce, especially after Microsoft's multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI's technology.
In 1998, Microsoft launched a new advanced research lab in Beijing intending to exploit China's maximum potential, focusing on facial, image, and recognition as well as AI, which has contributed significantly to the immense success of AI-powered chatbots like Microsoft Copilot or OpenAI's ChatGPT.
READ: OpenAI debuts GPT Store with millions of custom bots
As such, the Beijing-based AI lab has increasingly gained a lot of importance. But based on recent developments, especially after Biden's administration issued an Executive Order designed to place guardrails on the technology and prevent it from spiraling out of control.
Top executives at the Redmond giant, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, are now debating what to do with the lab, according to a spot by The New York Times.
The Executive Order imposed new export rules that prevent chipmakers like NVIDIA from shipping GPUs to China. The US government categorically indicated that the move was designed to establish control over the use of AI rather than running down China's economy. Consequently, this has forced chipmakers to pull down their products from Chinese websites. However, China has seemingly found a way around this bottleneck by using graphics card recycling factories to dismantle graphic cards and repurposing them into AI accelerators.
While the Beijing AI lab continues to be operational, Microsoft is currently facing a lot of pressure from US officials regarding the viability of the lad in China. The tech giant placed elaborate measures and guardrails to ensure it could establish control over the lab's operation, limiting its reach from politically sensitive work.
Microsoft asserts its commitment to the research lab moving forward. According to Peter Lee, Microsoft Research's lead:
"We are as committed as ever to the lab and the world-class research of this team. There has been no discussion or advocacy to close Microsoft Research Asia, and we look forward to continuing our research agenda."
It's worth noting that China alone accounted for up to 1.5% of Microsoft's sales, translating to a whopping $212 billion. This past week, we saw Microsoft claim its stake as the world's most valuable company, subduing Apple. Stock analysts attributed this dramatic shift to Microsoft's timely and well-thought-out investment in AI, which has, in turn, drawn more investors to the company versus Apple's declining iPhone sales.
Will Microsoft maintain its tech footprint in China?
According to people with close affiliations and knowledge of the matter, Microsoft's lab in China has raised security concerns amid the prevalence of AI. The tension brewing between China and the US government doesn't make things any easier. A major concern is that China might get hold of the technology at the lab or even worse, the researchers at the lab could get headhunted to join Chinese labs to further China's agenda.
Biden's administration already reached out to Microsoft seeking to understand its reluctance to pull the AI lab from China. While the US government already issued an Executive Order which ultimately crippled China's advances on the AI front, the order is yet to take full effect. This means that there are still loopholes and workarounds that can be explored.
Be it as it may, Microsoft's Beijing-based AI lab remains a hub for "critical technological breakthroughs." As such, it will be interesting to see the direction the tech giant takes to resolve this issue having placed all its bets on AI.
Do you think China and the US government's rivalry will allow Microsoft to continue running its operations smoothly? Share your thoughts in the comments.
