Facebook scandal alarms China eyeing next frontier in artificial intelligence battle

London/Singapore:The scandal over the alleged abuse of Facebook Inc.'s user data is unfolding a long way from China, and yet privacy regulators in Beijing have been watching intently. Their interest shows how all three big players in the technology world--the Americans, Chinese and Europeans--are feeling their way to balance the demands of consumers for privacy and of governments for security. But they're also competing to shape the rules of the game for internet companies and, for the US and China in particular, to maximize access to data for a bigger goal: to dominate artificial intelligence, the next frontier in machine learning. "All of these governments and companies are in the middle of trying to figure out what data governance should look like," said Samm Sacks, senior fellow in the technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "And this is happening in a global context that will have implications for trade and for research and development in AI." New Chinese privacy standards take effect on 1 May.