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Montana bans TikTok, but implementing the law could be challenging

21May

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Science

Montana bans TikTok, but implementing the law could be challenging

Montana has officially become the first state in the country to ban TikTok after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on Wednesday, May 17. The law is set to take effect in January 2024 and is already facing legal challenges."To protect Montanans' personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party, I have banned TikTok in Montana," wrote Gianforte on Twitter.The ban was quickly criticized by the ACLU amid concerns that the bill infringes on First Amendment rights. "With this ban, Governor Gianforte and the Montana legislature have trampled on the free speech of hundreds of thousands of Montanans who use the app to express themselves, gather information, and run their small business in the name of anti-Chinese sentiment,...

How China developed its first large domestic airliner to take on Boeing and Airbus

16Apr

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Science

How China developed its first large domestic airliner to take on Boeing and Airbus

As China moves closer to mass production of its first large passenger jet, details are emerging that reveal how a state-owned aircraft manufacturer was able to build a plane that looks remarkably similar to a Boeing 737. "It really looks like a knockoff," said Matt Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser during the Trump administration, describing the Chinese-built C919. Together, the duopoly that is Airbus and Boeing have dominated the skies for decades, cornering the plane manufacturing market globally. While these Western-based companies have maintained their hold on the industry, China — which has never been able to manufacture anything like a 737 — is seeking to change that. And to do so, U.S. national security experts point to a combination of economic pressure and...

Most see TikTok as a national security risk — CBS News poll

23Mar

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Science

Most see TikTok as a national security risk — CBS News poll

Most see TikTok's ties to China as a national security risk, and those who do would like to see the video-sharing app banned in the U.S. But younger people — who are the most likely age group to use it — are also the most opposed to a ban, or to the idea that it is a threat.These views come amid larger concerns about social media platforms in general, such as the prospect of foreign countries using social media to manipulate Americans, and about the privacy risk of platforms collecting personal data. In response, there's bipartisan support for the U.S. government placing at least some rules and restrictions on what social media companies can do with their users' personal data. ...

17Mar

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Science

China’s ChatGPT: Tech giant Baidu unveils “Ernie,” the Chinese answer to AI chatbot technology

Beijing — Days after popular artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT's developer OpenAI released its latest version, GPT4, Chinese tech giant Baidu, best known for its search engine and map services in the country, revealed its AI answer to the world. In a prerecorded video presentation, Baidu's celebrity founder Robin Li showcased the "Ernie" (Enhanced Representation of Knowledge Integration) chatbot, which he said could comprehend human intentions and deliver responses approaching human level.The service hasn't yet been released for the general public to try out, but the event listed functions such as understanding Chinese language, generating writing, and performing mathematical calculations, which overlap with ChatGPT's functionality.There were some highlights during the presentat...

13Mar

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Politics

Biden announces deal to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia

President Biden and the leaders of two close U.S. allies formally announced Monday that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet amid growing concern about China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region.Mr. Biden flew to San Diego for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS. The three leaders delivered remarks from Naval Base Point Loma at the entry of San Diego Bay, flanked by U.S. sailors with the USS Sterett destroyer in the background. "Today, as we stand at an inflection point in history, where the where the hard work of advancing deterrence and promoting stability is going to affect the prospect of peace for de...

10Mar

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Science

Democrats come around on TikTok ban, reflecting willingness to challenge China

Washington — More Democrats in Congress have been vocally supportive of banning Chinese-backed TikTok in the U.S. in recent months, reflecting what experts say is an increased willingness to challenge Beijing and crack down on the massively popular video app.The growing number of Democrats backing a TikTok ban has coincided with rising tensions with China and renewed national security concerns about the vast trove of data TikTok collects on its millions of American users, information that officials warn could be accessed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party. (ByteDance, TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, has said that the company protects user data and does not share information with the Chinese government.)The showdown over a Chinese surveillance balloon that drifted over the...

8Mar

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Science

Bipartisan group of senators unveil bill targeting TikTok, other foreign tech companies

Washington — A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a bill Tuesday that would give the executive branch new powers to take action against tech companies with ties to foreign adversaries and cut them off from the U.S. market, a measure that would allow the Biden administration to eventually ban Chinese-owned TikTok and other tech products in the name of protecting national security.The legislation — titled the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act — would apply to technology tied to China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela that "poses an undue or unacceptable risk" to national security. "Today everybody is talking about TikTok. But before there was TiKTok, there was Huawei and ZTE. Before that, t...

25Feb

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Politics

CIA confirms possibility of Chinese lethal aid to Russia

In an exclusive interview with CBS News, CIA Director Bill Burns confirmed the possibility that China may send lethal aid to Russia in its war against Ukraine."We're confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment," Burns told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on Friday. The revelation that China's President Xi Jinping is mulling this escalation is a dramatic change from past Biden administration assessments. Earlier this month, Burns told students at Georgetown University that Xi had been "very reluctant to provide the kind of lethal weapons to Russia to use in Ukraine that the Russians are very much interested in." Burns emphasized that China has not yet made the decision to transfer lethal aid ...

13Feb

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Politics

U.S. military shoots down unidentified object over Great Lakes region

The U.S. military on Sunday shot down another unidentified object, this time over the Great Lakes region, federal and state officials said Sunday. A congressional source briefed on the matter told CBS News the Defense Department is confident there has been no collateral damage. Later Sunday, the Defense Department confirmed there was no collateral damage. On Feb. 4, the U.S. downed a balloon over the coast of South Carolina that had drifted across the U.S. over several days. That balloon had originated in China, and the U.S. said it carried surveillance equipment. China has insisted the balloon was an airship that had blown off course and that the U.S. had "overreacted" by shooting it down. A U.S. official on Monday said the salvage operation off the coast of South Carolina has rec...

5Feb

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Politics

Suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off South Carolina coast

U.S. fighter jets shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon that had drifted across the United States for several days on Saturday, bringing an end to the opening chapter of a tense public standoff with Beijing over the intrusion into U.S. airspace.The balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina shortly after 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News. A senior defense official said an F-22 dispatched out of Langley Air Force Base took down the balloon with a single air-to-air missile. Defense officials previously told CBS News that the surveillance equipment attached to the balloon was the size of two to three school buses. Its presence over U.S. airspace prompted a diplomatic dispute between Washington and Beijing, which has claimed the balloon was...