The United States has blacklisted several Chinese AI companies working in facial recognition and surveillance. Why? What are these companies doing exactly, and how does this fit into the international politics of AI? We dig into these questions and attempt to do some live fact finding in this episode.

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Featuring:

• Chris Benson – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
• Daniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, X

Show Notes:

• 1 million ethnic Uyghurs in China have been held in “re-education camps”
• Surge in Chinese research related to surveillance of Muslim minorities
• US AI Blacklist summary article from MIT Technology Review
• Hikvision 
  • Their website
  • Here’s what you need to know about Hikvision, the camera maker behind China’s mass surveillance system
  • China’s Hikvision Has Probably Filmed You
• iFlytek 
  • Their website
  • Why 500 Million People in China Are Talking to This AI
• Megvii 
  • Their website
  • Behind the Rise of China’s Facial-Recognition Giants
  • Megvii, the Chinese startup unicorn known for facial recognition tech, files to go public in Hong Kong
• Yitu 
  • Their website
  • AI Startup Yitu Seeks IPO on China’s New Tech Board
  • This Chinese facial recognition start-up can identify a person in seconds

Learning resources:

• TensorFlow 2.0 notebook

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