When you ask ChatGPT "What happened in China in 1989?" the bot describes how the Chinese army massacred thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. But ask the same question to Ernie and you get the simple answer that it does not have "relevant information." That's because Ernie is an AI chatbot developed by the China-based company Baidu. When OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Anthropic made their chatbots available around the world last year, millions of people initially used them to evade government censorship. For the 70 percent of the world's internet users who live in places where the state has blocked major social media platforms, independent news sites, or content about human rights and the LGBTQ community, these bots provided access to unfiltered information that can shape a person's view of their identity, community, and government.

A Ukrainian strike destroyed a missile complex in Russian-occupied Crimea on Wednesday, August 23, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said. Russia has focused its efforts on establishing itself as a leader in research, development and fielding of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with hopes to separate Russia from Western dependence – hopes that remain fairly distant based on current capabilities. "Intelligence analysis suggests that the Russian military has thus far not been able to operationalize the concept AI-enabled combat capabilities and shortening the kill chain and making the targeting more effective," Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News Digital. "Their efforts remain largely aspirational," she added. "They've got big ideas articulated in military journals, but when it comes to practice, the Russians fall short of their goals."

Taipei, Taiwan – As the arrival of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots sends shockwaves through the global tech industry, China is racing to produce versions of its own. China's search-engine giant Baidu has announced plans to release its chatbot ERNIE sometime in March, following the pioneering launch of ChatGPT, which has prompted existential questions about the future of sectors ranging from education to journalism and healthcare. Chinese tech shares rallied in response to the news and authorities have pledged to beef up their support of the sector. Similar projects to ERNIE are under way at Chinese tech giants Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com and top institutions including the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. China's Ministry of Science and Technology said last week it would push for the integration of AI across Chinese industry, while cities including Beijing have also announced plans to back developers.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced substantial funding for a project it hopes will help to develop AI technologies capable of automatically analyzing how authoritarian regimes prevent the free flow of information online. Control over the internet has been a primary method for the restriction of information for many years now. It is exploited in diverse territories around the world to help spread propaganda and to prevent the dissemination of dissenting political opinions. This allows totalitarian regimes to maintain a stranglehold over the populace – particularly in and around election times. Now, the principal US agency charged with developing technologies for the military is asking for detailed submissions for research concepts funded by its Artificial Intelligence Exploration (AIE) branch.