SingPost’s board says decision to sack 3 top executives ‘carefully considered’
By CNA
Singapore Post’s board responded late on Sunday to questions from stakeholders about its decision to sack three top executives at the same time, saying it was “carefully considered”.
In a Singapore Exchange filing, chairman Simon Israel said: “The termination of senior management was a carefully considered decision by the board, based on established facts and supported by legal advice, including a second independent opinion from senior counsel of another law firm.
“This decision reflects the board’s unwavering commitment to governance principles, prioritising what is right – even when it is more challenging in the short term – in the best interests of the company.”
SingPost announced on December 22 the termination of the employment of its group chief executive officer Vincent Phang, its group chief financial officer Vincent Yik and the chief executive of the company’s international business unit Li Yu over their mishandling of whistle-blowing reports.
Following the news, the company’s share price dropped by nearly 11 per cent the following day.
Experts said the sacking of three top executives at the same time was “unprecedented” for a Singapore firm.
The SingPost board on Sunday published a detailed account of the proceedings and said the announcement was to address comments and queries from stakeholders surrounding the firing of Phang, Yik and Li.
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By CNA
Singapore Post’s board responded late on Sunday to questions from stakeholders about its decision to sack three top executives at the same time, saying it was “carefully considered”.
In a Singapore Exchange filing, chairman Simon Israel said: “The termination of senior management was a carefully considered decision by the board, based on established facts and supported by legal advice, including a second independent opinion from senior counsel of another law firm.
“This decision reflects the board’s unwavering commitment to governance principles, prioritising what is right – even when it is more challenging in the short term – in the best interests of the company.”
SingPost announced on December 22 the termination of the employment of its group chief executive officer Vincent Phang, its group chief financial officer Vincent Yik and the chief executive of the company’s international business unit Li Yu over their mishandling of whistle-blowing reports.
Following the news, the company’s share price dropped by nearly 11 per cent the following day.
Experts said the sacking of three top executives at the same time was “unprecedented” for a Singapore firm.
The SingPost board on Sunday published a detailed account of the proceedings and said the announcement was to address comments and queries from stakeholders surrounding the firing of Phang, Yik and Li.
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Syria’s new leader says elections could take 4 years, hopes Trump will lift sanctions
By Agence France-Presse
Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya on Sunday that elections could take four years, noting the importance of ties with Iran and Russia and calling for the United States to lift sanctions.
“The election process could take four years,” Sharaa told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, three weeks after his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebels ousted long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad.
“We need to rewrite the constitution” which could take “two or three years”, he added.
In the wide-ranging interview, he expressed hope that the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions imposed on his now war-torn and impoverished country under Assad.
“The sanctions on Syria were issued based on the crimes that the regime committed,” Sharaa said, adding that since Assad was gone, “these sanctions should be removed automatically”.
Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many governments, including the United States.
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By Agence France-Presse
Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya on Sunday that elections could take four years, noting the importance of ties with Iran and Russia and calling for the United States to lift sanctions.
“The election process could take four years,” Sharaa told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, three weeks after his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebels ousted long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad.
“We need to rewrite the constitution” which could take “two or three years”, he added.
In the wide-ranging interview, he expressed hope that the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions imposed on his now war-torn and impoverished country under Assad.
“The sanctions on Syria were issued based on the crimes that the regime committed,” Sharaa said, adding that since Assad was gone, “these sanctions should be removed automatically”.
Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many governments, including the United States.
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Did China’s Baidu discover scaling laws before OpenAI? A debate rekindles in AI circles
By Zhang Tong
Recent community discussions have reignited the debate over whether Chinese tech giant Baidu may have developed the key theoretical groundwork for large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) models before America’s OpenAI.
Large models, or “foundation models”, are at the forefront of AI development, with their rapid iterations driving cutting-edge applications. While the United States is generally viewed as leading advanced AI model innovation, some argue that China may have started exploring these concepts earlier.
Central to large-model development is the “scaling law” – a principle that asserts the larger the training data and model parameters, the stronger the model’s intelligence capabilities. Widely credited to OpenAI’s 2020 paper, “Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models”, this idea has since become a cornerstone in AI research.
The OpenAI paper showed that increasing model parameters, training data and compute resources boosts performance following a power-law relationship. This insight guided the development of subsequent large-scale AI models.
However, Dario Amodei, a co-author of the OpenAI paper and former vice-president of research at the company, shared in a November podcast that he had observed similar phenomena as early as 2014, during his time at Baidu.
“When I was working at Baidu with [former Baidu chief scientist] Andrew Ng in late 2014, the first thing we worked on was speech recognition systems,” Amodei said. “I noticed that models improved as you gave them more data, made them larger and trained them longer.”
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By Zhang Tong
Recent community discussions have reignited the debate over whether Chinese tech giant Baidu may have developed the key theoretical groundwork for large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) models before America’s OpenAI.
Large models, or “foundation models”, are at the forefront of AI development, with their rapid iterations driving cutting-edge applications. While the United States is generally viewed as leading advanced AI model innovation, some argue that China may have started exploring these concepts earlier.
Central to large-model development is the “scaling law” – a principle that asserts the larger the training data and model parameters, the stronger the model’s intelligence capabilities. Widely credited to OpenAI’s 2020 paper, “Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models”, this idea has since become a cornerstone in AI research.
The OpenAI paper showed that increasing model parameters, training data and compute resources boosts performance following a power-law relationship. This insight guided the development of subsequent large-scale AI models.
However, Dario Amodei, a co-author of the OpenAI paper and former vice-president of research at the company, shared in a November podcast that he had observed similar phenomena as early as 2014, during his time at Baidu.
“When I was working at Baidu with [former Baidu chief scientist] Andrew Ng in late 2014, the first thing we worked on was speech recognition systems,” Amodei said. “I noticed that models improved as you gave them more data, made them larger and trained them longer.”
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Here’s hoping Hongkongers won’t have to risk their lives at work in 2025
By Alice Wu
As we wrap up the year, taking stock of what occurred and looking back at the newsmakers of 2024, I can’t help but think about the families left behind after fatal industrial accidents in Hong Kong.
Of all the people who made it to the evening news in 2024, Fay Siu Sin-man of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims is the person I least want to see on television. The chief executive of the concern group has been the face of activism against fatal industrial accidents in the city.
Last month, Hong Kong had four work-related fatalities in just a week. Two died after falling from scaffolding, another was crushed by a falling cage lift at a construction site, and a cleaner fell into the sea at a public cargo area. These were followed by two more fatal industrial accidents: one involving an escalator repairman and the other a worker who was painting on a raised platform that malfunctioned.
On December 17, another worker was found dead, on the roof of a building at Shek Kong Barracks, after family called the police to report her missing. On December 23, a man unloading water pipes from a truck at a construction site for a Drainage Services Department project was hit on the head and died from his injuries.
By December 18, the Labour Department had recorded 21 fatal industrial accidents this year, a slight drop from 24 in 2023.
The legislature passed the Occupational Safety and Occupational Health Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2022 in the hope that raising the maximum penalty for serious occupational safety violations would act as a more effective deterrent.
The maximum penalty for such violations had been raised to HK$10 million from HK$500,000, together with two years’ imprisonment. Whether the slight drop in the number of fatal accidents can be attributed to the amended law is debatable, but it’s clear that this is not enough.
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By Alice Wu
As we wrap up the year, taking stock of what occurred and looking back at the newsmakers of 2024, I can’t help but think about the families left behind after fatal industrial accidents in Hong Kong.
Of all the people who made it to the evening news in 2024, Fay Siu Sin-man of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims is the person I least want to see on television. The chief executive of the concern group has been the face of activism against fatal industrial accidents in the city.
Last month, Hong Kong had four work-related fatalities in just a week. Two died after falling from scaffolding, another was crushed by a falling cage lift at a construction site, and a cleaner fell into the sea at a public cargo area. These were followed by two more fatal industrial accidents: one involving an escalator repairman and the other a worker who was painting on a raised platform that malfunctioned.
On December 17, another worker was found dead, on the roof of a building at Shek Kong Barracks, after family called the police to report her missing. On December 23, a man unloading water pipes from a truck at a construction site for a Drainage Services Department project was hit on the head and died from his injuries.
By December 18, the Labour Department had recorded 21 fatal industrial accidents this year, a slight drop from 24 in 2023.
The legislature passed the Occupational Safety and Occupational Health Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2022 in the hope that raising the maximum penalty for serious occupational safety violations would act as a more effective deterrent.
The maximum penalty for such violations had been raised to HK$10 million from HK$500,000, together with two years’ imprisonment. Whether the slight drop in the number of fatal accidents can be attributed to the amended law is debatable, but it’s clear that this is not enough.
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How Vietnam emerged as a serious rival to China’s export machine
By Ralph Jennings
South Korean conglomerate Samsung operates huge factories in both China and Vietnam that pump out millions of smartphones for the global market.
And when it comes to quality, there’s no difference between the Android devices assembled in each country, said Lam Nguyen, director of research at the market intelligence firm IDC.
“The quality of a Samsung made-in-Vietnam handset is definitely the same in terms of quality as a made-in-China one,” he said.
It’s not just phones. Vietnam’s factories have made rapid progress over the past few years, and are now matching their Chinese rivals on quality as well as price across a whole host of industries, analysts said.
The trend represents a concern for China as the country braces for another trade confrontation with the United States after president-elect Donald Trump returns to office in January.
For decades, China has maintained a dominant position as the “world’s factory”, with its giant manufacturing sector giving it a clear lead in terms of efficiency and quality. But Vietnam has emerged as a genuine competitor over the past 15 years.
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By Ralph Jennings
South Korean conglomerate Samsung operates huge factories in both China and Vietnam that pump out millions of smartphones for the global market.
And when it comes to quality, there’s no difference between the Android devices assembled in each country, said Lam Nguyen, director of research at the market intelligence firm IDC.
“The quality of a Samsung made-in-Vietnam handset is definitely the same in terms of quality as a made-in-China one,” he said.
It’s not just phones. Vietnam’s factories have made rapid progress over the past few years, and are now matching their Chinese rivals on quality as well as price across a whole host of industries, analysts said.
The trend represents a concern for China as the country braces for another trade confrontation with the United States after president-elect Donald Trump returns to office in January.
For decades, China has maintained a dominant position as the “world’s factory”, with its giant manufacturing sector giving it a clear lead in terms of efficiency and quality. But Vietnam has emerged as a genuine competitor over the past 15 years.
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Hong Kong to slap tobacco products with laser labels to root out contraband
By Clifford Lo
Tobacco products in Hong Kong will need to carry laser labels to show they are legitimate goods, in a bid by local authorities to crack down on black-market cigarettes, the Post has learned.
Sources said authorities were studying how to update existing legislation to ensure the adoption of the labelling system, which involved goods being marked with a laser, to distinguish between duty-paid cigarettes and untaxed tobacco products.
One source said an exemption period was likely to be granted to tobacco companies to sell their products without the new label.
He said the labelling system was primarily designed to target criminals attempting to pass off untaxed cigarettes as legally duty-paid ones by using packages carrying statutory health warnings.
Such contraband cigarettes are known as “cheap whites” and are understood to be sold to retailers such as news-stands and groceries, enticing them with the promise of high profits by distributing untaxed tobacco products.
The increase in tobacco tax in February’s budget pushed the average cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes up by HK$16 (US$2) to more than HK$90, with tax accounting for HK$66 of the sale price.
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By Clifford Lo
Tobacco products in Hong Kong will need to carry laser labels to show they are legitimate goods, in a bid by local authorities to crack down on black-market cigarettes, the Post has learned.
Sources said authorities were studying how to update existing legislation to ensure the adoption of the labelling system, which involved goods being marked with a laser, to distinguish between duty-paid cigarettes and untaxed tobacco products.
One source said an exemption period was likely to be granted to tobacco companies to sell their products without the new label.
He said the labelling system was primarily designed to target criminals attempting to pass off untaxed cigarettes as legally duty-paid ones by using packages carrying statutory health warnings.
Such contraband cigarettes are known as “cheap whites” and are understood to be sold to retailers such as news-stands and groceries, enticing them with the promise of high profits by distributing untaxed tobacco products.
The increase in tobacco tax in February’s budget pushed the average cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes up by HK$16 (US$2) to more than HK$90, with tax accounting for HK$66 of the sale price.
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Leasing momentum, lower interest rates unlikely to rescue Hong Kong’s distressed office landlords
By Cheryl Arcibal
Hong Kong’s office property market is likely to see more distressed sales in the medium term, as banks will need to call on loans amid a soft demand for office space, according to analysts.
From their peak in October 2018, prices of prime office space in the city’s main business zones of Sheung Wan/Central, Wan Chai/Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui declined by more than 46 per cent as of November, according to the latest data from the Rating and Valuation Department.
Overall rents, meanwhile, across the city’s premium office space segment are estimated to have fallen 8.6 per cent this year, according to real estate firm JLL. The property consultancy forecasts office rents to drop by as much as 10 per cent in 2025.
“A few years ago, rental transactions would go for 50,000 sq ft, but now leasing transactions are just for 18,000 sq ft, so rents could not fund the loans,” said Oscar Chan, head of capital markets at JLL in Hong Kong. “For the banks, if a borrower has defaulted for one or two years already, they have to take action no matter what. Definitely, in two to five years, there will be more cases of banks taking action.”
While Hong Kong’s six biggest lenders – HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank and ICBC Asia – this month cut borrowing costs to the lowest level in more than two years, uncertainties cloud the outlook for more rate cuts initiated by the US Federal Reserve next year because the incoming Trump administration’s economic policies are widely viewed as inflationary.
“Towards the end of 2024, the office market exhibited a mixed performance,” said Tom Ko, executive director and head of capital markets in Hong Kong at real estate brokers Cushman & Wakefield. “Looking ahead to 2025, the outlook for the office market suggests a continuation of challenges.”
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By Cheryl Arcibal
Hong Kong’s office property market is likely to see more distressed sales in the medium term, as banks will need to call on loans amid a soft demand for office space, according to analysts.
From their peak in October 2018, prices of prime office space in the city’s main business zones of Sheung Wan/Central, Wan Chai/Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui declined by more than 46 per cent as of November, according to the latest data from the Rating and Valuation Department.
Overall rents, meanwhile, across the city’s premium office space segment are estimated to have fallen 8.6 per cent this year, according to real estate firm JLL. The property consultancy forecasts office rents to drop by as much as 10 per cent in 2025.
“A few years ago, rental transactions would go for 50,000 sq ft, but now leasing transactions are just for 18,000 sq ft, so rents could not fund the loans,” said Oscar Chan, head of capital markets at JLL in Hong Kong. “For the banks, if a borrower has defaulted for one or two years already, they have to take action no matter what. Definitely, in two to five years, there will be more cases of banks taking action.”
While Hong Kong’s six biggest lenders – HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank and ICBC Asia – this month cut borrowing costs to the lowest level in more than two years, uncertainties cloud the outlook for more rate cuts initiated by the US Federal Reserve next year because the incoming Trump administration’s economic policies are widely viewed as inflationary.
“Towards the end of 2024, the office market exhibited a mixed performance,” said Tom Ko, executive director and head of capital markets in Hong Kong at real estate brokers Cushman & Wakefield. “Looking ahead to 2025, the outlook for the office market suggests a continuation of challenges.”
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Netanyahu has undergone successful prostate surgery, Israel hospital says
By Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent successful surgery on Sunday to have his prostate removed, hospital officials said, a procedure that came as he manages multiple crises including the war in Gaza and his trial for alleged corruption.
Netanyahu, who has had a series of health issues in recent years, has gone to great lengths to bolster a public image of himself as a healthy, energetic leader. During his trial this month, he boasted about working 18-hour days, accompanied by a cigar. But as Israel’s longest-serving leader, such a gruelling workload over a total of 17 years in power could take a toll on his well-being.
Netanyahu, 75, is among older world leaders including US President Joe Biden, 82, president-elect Donald Trump, 78, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 79, and Pope Francis, 88, who have come under scrutiny for their age and health issues.
Netanyahu’s latest condition is common in older men, but the procedure has had some fallout. The judges overseeing his trial accepted a request from his lawyer on Sunday to call off three days of testimony scheduled this week. The lawyer, Amit Hadad, had argued that Netanyahu would be fully sedated for the procedure and hospitalised for “a number of days”.
Dr Ofer Gofrit, head of the urology department at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, said in a video statement late on Sunday that the procedure had gone well and “there was no fear” of cancer or malignancy. “We only hope for the best,” he said.
In a statement, Netanyahu thanked his doctors. His office said he was “fully alert” and was taken to an underground recovery unit fortified against potential missile attacks. Netanyahu was expected to remain in hospital for several days of observation.
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By Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent successful surgery on Sunday to have his prostate removed, hospital officials said, a procedure that came as he manages multiple crises including the war in Gaza and his trial for alleged corruption.
Netanyahu, who has had a series of health issues in recent years, has gone to great lengths to bolster a public image of himself as a healthy, energetic leader. During his trial this month, he boasted about working 18-hour days, accompanied by a cigar. But as Israel’s longest-serving leader, such a gruelling workload over a total of 17 years in power could take a toll on his well-being.
Netanyahu, 75, is among older world leaders including US President Joe Biden, 82, president-elect Donald Trump, 78, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 79, and Pope Francis, 88, who have come under scrutiny for their age and health issues.
Netanyahu’s latest condition is common in older men, but the procedure has had some fallout. The judges overseeing his trial accepted a request from his lawyer on Sunday to call off three days of testimony scheduled this week. The lawyer, Amit Hadad, had argued that Netanyahu would be fully sedated for the procedure and hospitalised for “a number of days”.
Dr Ofer Gofrit, head of the urology department at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, said in a video statement late on Sunday that the procedure had gone well and “there was no fear” of cancer or malignancy. “We only hope for the best,” he said.
In a statement, Netanyahu thanked his doctors. His office said he was “fully alert” and was taken to an underground recovery unit fortified against potential missile attacks. Netanyahu was expected to remain in hospital for several days of observation.
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‘Phase 2 China shock is coming’: historian Adam Tooze on Europe, America and manufacturing
By Finbarr Bermingham
English historian Adam Tooze holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of history at Columbia University. He writes the popular Chartbook newsletter and has published a series of bestselling books. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series click here.
You have written and spoken critically on the debate in the West about Chinese industrial overcapacity. Can you explain your stance?
I think it’s a test of bona fides: where is the argument being applied? If somebody wants to make a case that there’s an overhang of capacity in Chinese heavy industry, it wouldn’t be surprising in light of the gear shift in Chinese growth, which was so heavily based around construction and involved a lot of concrete and steel – basic infrastructure buildout.
It’s an argument that reflects the difficulty of locating the current moment in Chinese economic history properly. It’s far too superficially seen as just a cyclical downturn, or something like that. It’s actually a far more fundamental break from a truly unique urbanisation push to a new phase, and so there are going to be some adjustment difficulties. It’s clearly been a long-standing issue, and it’s trailed over the global heavy industrial system for a long time.
It is significant that [the overcapacity debate] has come up at this moment, because it provides a kind of justification for industrial policy in the West and that’s also the dimension in which it seems to me quite problematic because it concerns the leading edge [of technology].
The new element of this argument is in green tech, and it’s just very difficult to even understand what we mean by the suggestion of, say, excess capacity in [solar] photovoltaics (PV). You can see it from the point of view of Chinese manufacturers who say this themselves, because it’s really difficult to earn a buck in making PV in China. But there’s no reason the rest of the world should have any dog in that particular fight. That’s industrial firms in China competing as hard as they do and using all of the tools in the book.
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By Finbarr Bermingham
English historian Adam Tooze holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of history at Columbia University. He writes the popular Chartbook newsletter and has published a series of bestselling books. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series click here.
You have written and spoken critically on the debate in the West about Chinese industrial overcapacity. Can you explain your stance?
I think it’s a test of bona fides: where is the argument being applied? If somebody wants to make a case that there’s an overhang of capacity in Chinese heavy industry, it wouldn’t be surprising in light of the gear shift in Chinese growth, which was so heavily based around construction and involved a lot of concrete and steel – basic infrastructure buildout.
It’s an argument that reflects the difficulty of locating the current moment in Chinese economic history properly. It’s far too superficially seen as just a cyclical downturn, or something like that. It’s actually a far more fundamental break from a truly unique urbanisation push to a new phase, and so there are going to be some adjustment difficulties. It’s clearly been a long-standing issue, and it’s trailed over the global heavy industrial system for a long time.
It is significant that [the overcapacity debate] has come up at this moment, because it provides a kind of justification for industrial policy in the West and that’s also the dimension in which it seems to me quite problematic because it concerns the leading edge [of technology].
The new element of this argument is in green tech, and it’s just very difficult to even understand what we mean by the suggestion of, say, excess capacity in [solar] photovoltaics (PV). You can see it from the point of view of Chinese manufacturers who say this themselves, because it’s really difficult to earn a buck in making PV in China. But there’s no reason the rest of the world should have any dog in that particular fight. That’s industrial firms in China competing as hard as they do and using all of the tools in the book.
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Hong Kong should focus on finding compelling uses for generative AI
By Kai-Lung Hui
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has charmed the world. Its ability to digest and produce content such as text, images and videos presents opportunities for any industry that needs to communicate – from medicine, law and finance to the creative arts, architecture and biochemical sciences.
US research suggests large language models (LLM) could affect at least 10 per cent of tasks for most of the workforce and at least 50 per cent for some. Accordingly, LLM and generative AI are tipped to become general purpose technologies, which have a broad and transformative impact on the economy and society.
One key feature of general purpose technology is that it attracts investment. According to Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report, private investment in generative AI last year was nearly nine times that in 2022, and 30 times that in 2019.
While this investment is primarily led by the United States, China has invested more than US$600 million, close to the combined investment of the European Union and United Kingdom. Most of this investment went to AI infrastructure and natural language processing, both of which form the foundation for generative AI. Over the five years to 2027, the International Data Corporation expects generative AI investment in China to grow by a compound annual rate of 86.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, a UBS survey found that over 75 per cent of family offices globally are likely to invest in generative AI in the next two to three years. The Hong Kong government is gung-ho about generative AI development and plans to deploy a ChatGPT-like tool for government departments to use. Many local institutions are already training foundational generative AI models or fine-tuning them for specific sectors and users.
But we must recognise that general purpose technology in itself may not be seen by end users as of high value. The internet is a case in point. In the heady dotcom days of the 1990s, investors were hopeful that the internet would transform society, all but eliminating the need for intermediaries such as travel agents and brick-and-mortar shops, particularly in retail. In support of this vision, enormous investments went into building internet infrastructure, particularly in laying fibre optic cables and building online portals.
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By Kai-Lung Hui
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has charmed the world. Its ability to digest and produce content such as text, images and videos presents opportunities for any industry that needs to communicate – from medicine, law and finance to the creative arts, architecture and biochemical sciences.
US research suggests large language models (LLM) could affect at least 10 per cent of tasks for most of the workforce and at least 50 per cent for some. Accordingly, LLM and generative AI are tipped to become general purpose technologies, which have a broad and transformative impact on the economy and society.
One key feature of general purpose technology is that it attracts investment. According to Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report, private investment in generative AI last year was nearly nine times that in 2022, and 30 times that in 2019.
While this investment is primarily led by the United States, China has invested more than US$600 million, close to the combined investment of the European Union and United Kingdom. Most of this investment went to AI infrastructure and natural language processing, both of which form the foundation for generative AI. Over the five years to 2027, the International Data Corporation expects generative AI investment in China to grow by a compound annual rate of 86.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, a UBS survey found that over 75 per cent of family offices globally are likely to invest in generative AI in the next two to three years. The Hong Kong government is gung-ho about generative AI development and plans to deploy a ChatGPT-like tool for government departments to use. Many local institutions are already training foundational generative AI models or fine-tuning them for specific sectors and users.
But we must recognise that general purpose technology in itself may not be seen by end users as of high value. The internet is a case in point. In the heady dotcom days of the 1990s, investors were hopeful that the internet would transform society, all but eliminating the need for intermediaries such as travel agents and brick-and-mortar shops, particularly in retail. In support of this vision, enormous investments went into building internet infrastructure, particularly in laying fibre optic cables and building online portals.
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Croatian incumbent Milanovic headed for election victory, early results indicate
By dpa
Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanovic looks set to win a second term in office according to an early election tally.
With 63 per cent of all votes counted on Sunday evening, the former social democrat Milanovic was clearly ahead with 50.1 per cent. His challenger Dragan Primorac, who is supported by the conservative ruling party HDZ, had meanwhile collected 21.8 per cent of the vote.
Post-election polls suggested an even clearer lead. According to figures from the public broadcaster HTR, Milanovic received 50.7 per cent of the vote.
If none of the candidates achieve more than 50 per cent of the vote, a presidential run-off will be called on January 12.
Originally from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Milanovic was prime minister of Croatia from 2011 to 2016.
As president, he soon adopted a populist rhetoric, appealing not only to his core left-wing voters, but also to right-wing and far-right voters.
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By dpa
Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanovic looks set to win a second term in office according to an early election tally.
With 63 per cent of all votes counted on Sunday evening, the former social democrat Milanovic was clearly ahead with 50.1 per cent. His challenger Dragan Primorac, who is supported by the conservative ruling party HDZ, had meanwhile collected 21.8 per cent of the vote.
Post-election polls suggested an even clearer lead. According to figures from the public broadcaster HTR, Milanovic received 50.7 per cent of the vote.
If none of the candidates achieve more than 50 per cent of the vote, a presidential run-off will be called on January 12.
Originally from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Milanovic was prime minister of Croatia from 2011 to 2016.
As president, he soon adopted a populist rhetoric, appealing not only to his core left-wing voters, but also to right-wing and far-right voters.
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Finland finds drag marks on Baltic seabed after cable damage
By Reuters
Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor.
The Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was boarded by Finnish police and coastguard officials on Thursday and sailed into Finnish waters where the crew of the impounded tanker is being questioned.
Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Nato said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region.
A break in the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia took place at midday on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the two countries, grid operators said.
They said Estlink 2 might not be back in service before August.
Finnish police suspect the Eagle S caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
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By Reuters
Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor.
The Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was boarded by Finnish police and coastguard officials on Thursday and sailed into Finnish waters where the crew of the impounded tanker is being questioned.
Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Nato said on Friday it would boost its presence in the region.
A break in the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia took place at midday on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the two countries, grid operators said.
They said Estlink 2 might not be back in service before August.
Finnish police suspect the Eagle S caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
via SCMP Full Text Feed
