Now our intrepid China reporter, Caiwei Chen, has identified a new trend unfolding within China's tech scene: Companies that were dominant in electric vehicles are betting big on translating that success into developing humanoid robots. I spoke with her about what she found out and what it might mean for Trump's policies and the rest of the globe. James: Before we talk about robots, let's talk about DeepSeek. The frenzy for the AI model peaked a couple of weeks ago. What are you hearing from other Chinese AI companies?

Welcome to the latest issue of your guide to AI, an editorialized newsletter covering key developments in AI research, industry, geopolitics and startups during January 2023. This one is a monster so it might get clipped in your inbox (read the online version in case!). Nathan wrote an oped in The Times for why university spinouts are a critical engine for our technology industry and why spinout policy needs urgent reform. The Times Higher Education profiled our open source data term database, spinout.fyi. Nathan commented on The Financial Times' Big Read on The growing tensions around spinouts at British universities. The State of AI Report provided two key figures to The Economist's piece on The race of the AI labs heats up. Register for next year's RAAIS, a full-day event in London that explores research frontiers and real-world applications of AI-first technology at the world's best companies. As usual, we love hearing what you're up to and what's on your mind, just hit reply or forward to your friends:-) BioNTech acquired London and Tunis-based AI startup InstaDeep for $680M (cash stock) - this was a huge deal.

Chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports that the U.S. will only shoot down the Chinese spy balloon if officials can assure zero civilian casualties. U.S. investors were involved in at least 37% of all investment transactions in China's artificial intelligence, or AI, sector between 2015 and 2021, according to a new report. Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology found that $40.2 billion of the total money raised by all Chinese AI companies over this time period had U.S. backing. However, the center couldn't determine what percentage of that amount came from U.S. investors or investors abroad. The money went to 251 Chinese AI companies, and 91% of the U.S. investment came as venture capital to earlier-stage businesses.

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - U.S. investors including the investment arms of Intel Corp (INTC.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) accounted for nearly a fifth of investments in Chinese artificial intelligence companies from 2015 to 2021, a report showed on Wednesday. The document, released by CSET, a tech policy group at Georgetown University, comes amid growing scrutiny of U.S. investments in AI, Quantum and semiconductors, as the Biden administration prepares to unveil new restrictions on U.S. funding of Chinese tech companies. According to the report, 167 U.S. investors took part in 401 transactions, or roughly 17% of the investments into Chinese AI companies in the period. Those transactions represented a total $40.2 billion in investment, or 37% of the total raised by Chinese AI companies in the 6-year period. It was not clear from the report, which pulled information from data provider Crunchbase, what percentage of the funding came from the U.S. firms.

If you, or your kids, are obsessed with TikTok, you might be surprised to hear that the company behind your favorite app is a giant artificial intelligence tech conglomerate in China. Many westerners have no idea that China is actually setting a course to become a world leader in AI, and that a number of key Chinese AI companies have already become a major part of everyday life in China, the United States, and the rest of the world. China's leaders have made AI a strategic priority and are driving the Chinese tech industry to define standards and norms for global artificial intelligence practices. There are three major driving factors behind China's rise on the global AI scene: China's population of 1.4 billion consumers is the biggest domestic market in the world. There are a plethora of potential AI applications for this market, so China is fertile ground for AI companies to thrive.

MIT has terminated a research collaboration with iFlytek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company accused of supplying technology for surveilling Muslims in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. The university canceled the relationship in February after reviewing an upcoming project under tightened guidelines governing funding from companies in China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. MIT has not said why it terminated the iFlytek collaboration or disclosed details about the project that prompted the review, but it has faced pushback from some students and staff about the arrangement since it began two years ago. "We take very seriously concerns about national security and economic security threats from China and other countries, and human rights issues," says Maria Zuber, vice president of research at MIT. US companies and universities have built ties with Chinese tech firms in recent years. But the relationships have come under increasing scrutiny as relations between the two countries have soured.

Donald Trump's latest salvo against China threatens to derail a $1 billion coming-out party for a prominent startup backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., while curtailing the country's broader ambitions of leading artificial intelligence in the coming decade. The US placed eight Chinese technology giants on a US blacklist on Monday, accusing them of being implicated in human rights violations against Muslim minorities in the country's far-western region of Xinjiang. Among those singled out for sweeping American export restrictions were SenseTime Group Ltd., the world's largest AI startup, and Megvii Technology Ltd. -- two giant enterprises Beijing is counting on to spearhead advances into a revolutionary technology, aided by billions of dollars in foreign backing. The White House's actions -- announced days before sensitive trade negotiations resume in Washington -- cast a pall over not just Megvii's capital-raising effort but the burgeoning Chinese sector. Leading players like SenseTime and Megvii, already having trouble securing financing during an economic downturn, had considered international forays to sustain a sizzling pace of growth.

Rooted in a research team investigating deep learning at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, SenseTime earned early renown by occasionally beating Google and Facebook in image-recognition competitions. Rapidly expanding on the back of massive rounds of VC, it currently supplies face-recognition tech that the Chinese government plans to use to track citizens through its network of 170 million CCTV cameras, and with which state-owned telecoms behemoth China Mobile will monitor its 300 million users. Banks, prisons, airports, police and retailers are already on the SenseTime client list; it may add autonomous driving and augmented reality to that roster soon.

A new list of China's top 50 artificial intelligence companies indicates that the majority of them enjoy the backing of either the government or the country's incumbent tech giants. The China AI Top 50 Ranking was unveiled by China Money Network at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China on Wednesday. According to China Money Network founder Nina Xiang the report looked at more than 1,000 companies in the Chinese Ai sector and involved the participation of a broad range of industry experts. Companies were assessed on the basis of 12 items across five areas, including tech capability, maturity of products, fund-raising, business fundamentals and future potential. The report revealed that 27 out of the top 50 Chinese AI companies were backed by either government-associated funds or the leading tech giants of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.