6 days Ago By Laura Dobberstein
ASIA IN BRIEF President Xi Jinping of China and President Joe Biden of the USA have pledged to continue working together to ensure AI does not harm humanity. The two met on Saturday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru. In the Chinese and American accounts of their meeting, both leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons.
The two leaders also made remarks about continuing work to ensure AI is used productively. The Chinese readout also included the following statement. There is no evidence that supports the irrational claim of the so-called “cyberattacks from China.
” China itself is a target of international cyberattacks, and consistently opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks. - Simon Sharwood Samsung Electronics appears to be close to settling a ten-month dispute with local unions. The agreement includes several key points: paid time off for union members to attend meetings, two million loyalty points for all employees that can be used to purchase company products, a 5.
1 percent wage increase, and expanded long-term service leave. The agreement also promises unquantifiable items, like mutual respect and improved labor-management relations, and joint corporate social responsibility activities. But the proposed deal covers on 2023 and 2024 – conditions for next year haven’t been agreed.
LG last week introduced a display panel that can stretch from 12 inches to 18 inches over 10,000 times. The 100 ppi full color RGB display is an upgrade from a 2022 prototype that only stretched two inches. The device is made of a silicon substrate that’s similar to substances used in contact lenses.
The screen was debuted at a demonstration at LG Science Park before being featured [VIDEO] at Seoul Fashion Week where LG hit the runway to show off clothes that change color and display moving images. Asian telecoms giant Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) last week reported a 42 percent drop in first-half net profit, which landed at S$1.23 billion ($920 million).
The drop was attributed [PDF] to the “exceptional gain” of S$1.2 billion in the prior year after a merger. The telco also drew attention in its home last week when government ministers addressed an October 8 outage that saw, among other services, emergency hotlines disrupted.
The root cause of the outage was attributed to “a technical issue which affected the proper functioning of a network component in one of the two systems supporting Singtel’s fixed line voice service.” Two systems, housed in different telephone exchanges, are configured to automatically handle the full load should one experience a malfunction. However, that did not happen and the services experienced a disruption.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling suggested in parliament [VIDEO] that the government is now considering diversifying emergency hotline providers. Singtel also made headlines after reports of a woman scanning QR code to receive a free ice cream and finding she was billed $7.99 on her phone bill for allegedly subscribing to a mobile service – even after immediately cancelling the subscription.
The Register asked Singtel to confirm the incident and better understand the carrier’s approach to preventing QR code scams, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. Despite the eventful week, the CEO reportedly found time to express optimism over an incoming Donald Trump presidency. Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon feels “new opportunities” could arise as businesses may be inspired to relocate operations or investments to Southeast Asia.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade set a deadline of the end of November for Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu to register with the government, or face having their apps and domains blocked. Until the companies have complied with regulations, both platforms are required to cease advertising and marketing activities. The move comes amid concerns over the platforms' deep discounting practices, which have raised issues for local businesses, as well as fears about the sale of counterfeit products.
The government is also considering ending a tax exemption on imported goods under $40. Vietnam's e-commerce market, now valued at $22 billion, is growing rapidly, but the government is focusing on regulating foreign platforms to ensure fair competition and consumer protection. The Japanese government will likely delay the submission of a bill for an "active cyberdefense" system until next year.
Local media reported that there is just not enough time to thoroughly consider the bill in the upcoming session of parliament as other issues have priority. “Cyber attacks are an imminent threat. We will accelerate our efforts to formulate a bill to further enhance our response capabilities on the cyber security front so that we can submit it to the Diet as soon as possible,” stated this year’s new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, in a press conference last Monday.
Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include: ®.
