Intangible, now backed by $4 million in seed funding, offers an AI-powered creative tool that allows users to create 3D world concepts with text prompts to aid creative professionals across a variety of industries. The company’s mission is to make the creative process accessible to everyone, including professionals such as filmmakers, game designers, event planners, […]
Natasha Cloud, the WNBA champion guard who currently plays for the Connecticut Sun, fired off a defiant message on social media following her suggestion that the U.S. has focused on profit over people many times.
Cloud made the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press and defended programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Amid criticism over her words, Cloud didn’t appear to waver.
"Thing is I’m not soft, & words don’t hurt me lol are we 5? it still remains people over profit," she wrote on X. "If yall truly about being unbiased… Google search any overseas media coverage of what’s happening in America.
"Then come back to me and tell me the whole world crazy."
Cloud said last week it was important for athletes to speak out now more than ever as Trump ended government DEI programs, and corporations followed suit.
"The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work," Cloud said. "And it’s time to break down a system that has only been about White men."
Cloud then said she believed the county had put its focus on "money over people."
"I understand the business aspect and I understand the human aspect," Cloud said. "Too often this country has put the human aspect aside, and put profit and money over people."
The three-time All-Defensive Team selection has not shied away from speaking her mind on social media.
She called on Americans to speak out against the high cost of living in the U.S. and had a tiff with former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom over criticisms of the country in 2023.
WNBA champion Natasha Cloud talked about her passion for social justice on Thursday.
Cloud, who previously spoke out against the U.S. government on social media over the cost of living in May 2024, spoke this week in defense of DEI after President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of several government DEI programs.
"The systems of power are working as they always were intended to work," Cloud told The Associated Press. "And it’s time to break down a system that has only been about White men."
Cloud added that she believes the country is putting "money over people."
"I understand the business aspect and I understand the human aspect," Cloud said. "Too often this country has put the human aspect aside, and put profit and money over people."
The 33-year-old Connecticut Sun guard's previous statement on the cost of living called for Americans of all backgrounds to speak up about the high cost of living.
"At some point we gotta put our differences aside and understand WE ARE ALL GETTING f-----. & idk about yall im tired of this s---. Everybody can eat. They just make us think everyone eating means someone’s taking from your plate. A lie. Our government been taking all OUR food," she wrote on X. "Forreal idc if you’re a republican or a democrat. White black brown..idc what your religion or sexual preference is. Etc.
"If you don’t wanna fight for a stranger than fight for Yourself Your kids Your grandkids Your parents who worked their entire lives to not be able to afford retiring Your sister who pays thousand for insulin that costs dollars to make Your daughter in 100k debt after college."
In that post, Cloud tagged the Democratic Party, Republican Party, former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, while pointing out issues like inflation and the national minimum wage.
But prior to that, in 2020, Cloud sat out the WNBA season to focus on community reform efforts and join the George Floyd protests. She also used her social media platforms that year to call for WNBA arenas to be used as polling locations.
Now, Cloud is just one of the players on the Connecticut Sun calling for political activism at the start of Trump's second term.
Her Connecticut Sun teammate DiJonai Carrington incited fierce backlash by wearing an anti-Trump shirt in January, and a week later she called for WNBA players to "take action."
"We see that some of the policies are already going into action, and, of course, that means that as the WNBA and being at the forefront of a lot of these movements, it's time for us to also take action," Carrington said. "It definitely needs to happen as women, women's rights being taken away, like, now, LGBTQ rights being taken away now. They haven't happened yet, but definitely in the works."
The small Colorado company Entabeni Systems is quietly working to upend the ski industry with a business model built on handshake deals made in ski resort parking lots.
Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, said Europe should be recruiting US-based scientists who face reductions in federal research funding.
Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images.
Meta's Yann LeCun warned there could be an exodus of US-based scientists due to funding cuts.
The Trump administration wants to slash NIH funding, causing concern in the scientific community.
LeCun said Europe should be recruiting them by offering more favorable research conditions.
The United States could soon see an exodus of tech talent, according to Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun.
"The US seems set on destroying its public research funding system. Many US-based scientists are looking for a Plan B," LeCun wrote in a post on LinkedIn on Saturday.
The Trump administration has issued several executive orders to reduce funding, sparking concern among the US-based scientific community.
It announced drastic cuts to the National Institutes of Health that would effectively end billions in federal funding for biomedical research. A judge on Friday extended a temporary block on the cuts as lawsuits filed by states and universities who say the cuts are illegal make their way through the court system.
"A sane government would never do this," former Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier said of the funding cuts in a post on X.
Elon Musk's cost-cutting DOGE squad has also been deployed to federal agencies, including the NIH, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA.
The executive order that Trump signed against diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates has also caused concern that it could threaten scientific research at universities.
"At least one university is telling its researchers to refrain from terms like "biodiversity" to steer clear of detection by AI-based grant review systems, " Scientific American reported.
LeCun — who earned his bachelor's and Ph.D. in France — said the changes in the United States should be a wake-up call for European institutions and companies.
"You may have an opportunity to attract some of the best scientists in the world," he wrote.
He shared seven things he believes talented researchers want to see at any university, company, or public research agency they're joining:
Access to top students and junior collaborators.
Access to research funding with little administrative overhead.
Good compensation (comparable with top universities in the US, Switzerland, Canada).
Freedom to do research on what they think is most promising.
Access to research facilities (e.g. computing infrastructure, etc).
Ability to collaborate/consult with industry and startups.
Moderate teaching and administrative duties.
His message to Europe: "To attract the best scientific and technological talents, make science and technology research professions attractive."
"Food Wars" hosts Harry Kersh and Joe Avella travel across New Orleans to find the best gumbo in the city. They'll be visiting three locations in two days to see what the city has to offer. This is "Food Tours."
Connecticut Sun player DiJonai Carrington incited fierce backlash by wearing an anti-Trump shirt last weekend, and now she's taking that message even further.
During a press conference before an "Unrivaled" league game Thursday, Carrington declared it's time for WNBA players to "take action" in response to President Donald Trump's policies.
"We see that some of the policies are already going into action, and, of course, that means that as the WNBA and being at the forefront of a lot of these movements, it's time for us to also take action," Carrington said.
"It definitely needs to happen as women, women's rights being taken away, like, now, LGBTQ rights being taken away now. They haven't happened yet, but definitely in the works."
Carrington wore a shirt that said, "The F--- Donald Trump Tour" Friday while walking into Wayfair Arena in Miami, Florida.
The player is most known for her interactions with women's basketball phenom Caitlin Clark during Clark's rookie WNBA season in 2024.
Carrington gave Clark a black eye after poking her during a game between Clark's Indiana Fever and Carrington's Connecticut Sun in the first round of the playoffs in September. Carrington laughed with Fever teammate Marina Mabrey after the incident.
Carrington has said she didn't intentionally poke Clark in the eye and that she wasn't laughing about the incident. However, she made light of the controversy over Clark's black eye in an Instagram Live video in October.
In the video, Carrington and her girlfriend, NaLyssa Smith, who plays on the Indiana Fever with Clark, were in their kitchen when Smith poked Carrington in the eye.
"Ow, you poked me in the eye," Carrington said. Smith apologized, and the two laughed.
"Did you do it on purpose?" Carrington asked.
Carrington provoked Clark fans prior to the eye-poking incident with multiple statements berating Clark and her fan base.
During a game in June, Carrington fouled Clark after Clark received an inbound pass from teammate Kristy Wallace. Clark caught the pass and started toward the basket. Carrington was late getting to Clark due to a screen by Aliyah Boston, and she bumped into Clark.
Later that month, Carrington posted on X, saying Clark should do more to speak out about people using her name for "racism" and other forms of prejudice. She also called the Fever fans the "nastiest" in the league.
Since Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an open version of its reasoning model R1 at the beginning of this week, many in the tech industry have been making grand pronouncements about what the company achieved, and what it means for the state of AI. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, for example, posted that DeepSeek is “one […]
Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
DeepSeek, an open-source Chinese AI company, has riled Silicon Valley with its rapid rise.
Meta's chief AI scientist said DeepSeek has benefited from the open-source community.
Meta's AI program has remained open-source, while OpenAI has shifted to closed-source.
Silicon Valley was on edge this week after DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, released its R1 model. In third-party benchmarks, it outperformed leading American AI companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic.
For Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, the biggest takeaway from DeepSeek's success was not the heightened threat posed by Chinese competition but the value of keeping AI models open source so that anyone can benefit.
It's not that China's AI is "surpassing the US," but rather that "open source models are surpassing proprietary ones," LeCun said in a post on Threads.
DeepSeek's R1 is itself open source, as is Meta's Llama. OpenAI, which was originally founded as an open-source AI company with a mission to create technology that benefits all of humanity, has on the other hand more recently shifted to closed-source.
LeCun said DeepSeek has "profited from open research and open source."
"They came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people's work. Because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it," LeCun said. "That is the power of open research and open source."
When DeepSeek unveiled R1 on January 20, which it said "demonstrates remarkable reasoning capabilities," the company said it was "pushing the boundaries" of open-source AI.
The announcement took Silicon Valley by surprise and was easily the most talked-about development in the tech industry during a week that included the World Economic Forum, TikTok uncertainty, and President Donald Trump's busy first few days in office.
Days after DeepSeek's announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta planned to spend over $60 billion in 2025 as it doubles down on AI. Zuckerberg has been an outspoken advocate of open-source models.
"Part of my goal for the next 10-15 years, the next generation of platforms, is to build the next generation of open platforms and have the open platforms win," he said in September. "I think that's going to lead to a much more vibrant tech industry."
Those who support open source say it allows technology to develop rapidly and democratically since anyone can modify and redistribute the code. On the other hand, advocates for closed-source models argue that they are more secure because the code is kept private.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the closed-source approach offers his company "an easier way to hit the safety threshold" in an AMA on Reddit last November. He added, however, that he "would like us to open source more stuff in the future."
North Korean escapee Hyunseung Lee, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Business Insider/KCNA via Reuters
A North Korean who escaped the country described his days in the Korean People's Army.
He told BI that he trained men from the Storm Corps, the elite unit believed to be fighting Ukraine.
He described tough training conditions, dated equipment, and little ammo.
Constant propaganda as well as limited access to ammunition — or even toilet paper — were the stark realities of being in North Korea's army, a former soldier told Business Insider.
Hyunseung Lee, who was born in North Korea in 1985, defected with his family in 2014. Today he lives and works as a consultant for the Global Peace Foundation in Washington, DC.
During his years in the military, Lee says he trained soldiers from the 11th Corps — or Storm Corps — the elite unit now believed to be fighting alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine.
In an open letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in November, Lee described those soldiers as victims of a "ruthless deal" between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. He urged Zelenskyy to target them with psychological tactics.
Lee spoke to Business Insider for an in-depth interview about how North Korea really works.
Shared underwear and no ammo
Lee's firsthand knowledge of the North Korean military was developed during the rule of Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's father, who died in 2011.
Nonetheless, his insight gives a rare snapshot of the hermit kingdom, as well as its military operations.
Lee told BI that he joined the North Korean military in April 2002.
After training, he said his first unit was the 4th Corps Reconnaissance Artillery Battalion, a special force devoted mainly to infiltrating enemy bases and transmitting back their coordinates for artillery attacks.
It was a grueling life — one in which there were no proper shower facilities, food was poor, and trainees had to improvise their own toilet paper, he said.
"The first day, I used my sock to wipe," Lee said, adding that later it was leaflets, books, or leaves.
Underwear was also communal, he added.
"We washed them together and then the senior officers distribute underwear randomly."
Lee said he was paid 50 North Korean won a month — about the price of an ice cream.
Soldiers would then supplement their income with private business, which was against the law, he added. "Basically, no one could make a living with the North Korean payroll system."
North Korean troops fire mortars in a state media-provided image.
Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
Having no experience of the outside world, Lee said he believed that the North Korean army could take on the US and win. Yet he said the equipment they were using was "from World War II."
Training was also massively restricted due to fears of breaking equipment that could not be replaced, he told BI.
When it came to weapons training — on a North Korean version of the AK-47 — there was very little shooting because bullets were "strictly controlled," Lee said.
"So the first year of my military service, I was only able to shoot three bullets," he said.
Storm Corps: 'Zero relationship with modern warfare'
Lee said he spent six months training soldiers from the Storm Corps, after being transferred to a special tactics unit that taught techniques in shooting, knife throwing, and martial arts.
Drawn from taller and more well-built soldiers, Lee said the corps is an elite unit trained in operations on foreign soil — namely airborne missions, sniping, and light infantry work.
In October, reports emerged that North Korea was using the Storm Corps for the forces it was sending to Russia.
During Lee's time with the corps, they at least had more bullets to work with, he said. But "the regime cannot provide fuel and an airplane," which meant the airborne troops had to practice by jumping off a model, he said.
Kim Jong Un among blurred missiles in this North Korean state media photo from November 2024.
KCNA via KCNA Watch
While North Korea and Russia have long shared similar tactics and equipment, when it comes to advanced tactics it's likely another story, Lee said.
"I would say their training has zero relationship with modern warfare," he said of the Storm Corps.
North Korea experts have also previously told BI that the soldiers — despite their proud status back in North Korea — would likely be at the bottom of the pecking order in Russia. It's an assessment Lee shares.
He said there would also be communication problems, with Russian soldiers taking advantage of the North Korean troops. Ukraine has already claimed that language barriers have caused deadly friendly fire incidents.
Asked if the Storm Corps will survive fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, Lee said: "I honestly don't know."
But he said they'll want to get back home as soon as possible. "They want to go back, and they want to be alive."
The World Health Organization has begun cost-cutting measures in preparation for a US withdrawal next year, according to reporting by Reuters.
On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the United Nation's health agency. The country was a founding member of the WHO in 1948 and has since been a key member of the organization, which has 193 other member states. The executive order cited Trump's long-standing complaints about the agency's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, dues payments, and alleged protection of China as the reasons for the withdrawal.
In a statement on Tuesday, the WHO said it "regrets" the announcement and hopes the US will reconsider.
I had low expectations since it's a family-friendly spot, and I prefer adults-only trips.
However, from the great food to the beautiful spa, there are so many reasons I want to go back.
When I booked a stay at the Hilton Cancún Mar Caribe, I expected a cookie-cutter all-inclusive experience. After all, it's a resort by a global chain.
Plus, as someone who prefers adults-only vacations, I wasn't overly excited that the hotel was family-friendly.
However, after five days on its pristine white-sand beach with my friend and her daughter, I returned home thoroughly impressed.
Here's why I can't wait to go back.
I upgraded to Hilton Enclave, and it was worth the splurge.
Hilton Enclave comes with a lot of perks.
Simone Paget
The Hilton Enclave rooms, which start at about $570 a night, offer a premium all-inclusive experience.
It comes with a beachfront room, private check-in and concierge, and exclusive amenities — like an upgraded mini-bar and access to the Enclave Lounge stocked with top-shelf liquor and gourmet snacks.
There were also reserved areas for Hilton Enclave around the resort, which made finding a chair at the beach or pool a breeze.
Every room faces the Caribbean Sea.
I couldn't get over the ocean views.
Simone Paget
I've stayed at dozens of all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and experienced various room types — including one that overlooked a parking lot and loading bay.
I love that every room at the Hilton Cancún Mar Caribe faces the ocean.
I stayed in one of the 61 Enclave suites directly on the beach and loved falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing below.
My ultramodern room came with a soaking tub.
The big tub was a nice touch.
Simone Paget
The resort was recently renovated, and the sea-inspired rooms felt super nice, with chic midcentury-modern furniture, cute wallpaper, and pops of turquoise.
My room also had a spa-like bathroom with a full-sized soaking tub, perfect for relaxing at the end of a long day in the sun.
The rooftop infinity pools were stunning — and had great views.
I got to visit the Chala rooftop pools at the resort.
Simone Paget
Hilton Enclave guests have access to Chala, a private rooftop bar with gorgeous infinity pools.
It was the perfect place to relax with a book and catch the sunset.
There was delicious fresh ceviche and tasty cocktails.
I loved the cocoberry mojitos.
Simone Paget
In addition to jaw-dropping views, the rooftop bar served all-you-can-eat, freshly made ceviche from different regions in Mexico.
I also discovered my new favorite poolside drink: a cocoberry mojito. It's a twist on the traditional mojito with coconut rum, mint, and muddled berries.
The pool area offers something for everyone.
I spent some time at the quiet, adults-only pool.
Simone Paget
The resort has three large pools, each with a different vibe.
There's a kid-friendly pool with a waterslide, an adults-only pool with a swim-up bar, and a sprawling but serene quiet pool that hosts regular floating yoga classes.
There were also smaller, adults-only infinity pools overlooking the ocean. These were the perfect spots to relax without the kids.
The kids' club is one of the best I've ever seen.
I think kids would get a kick out of the space.
Simone Paget
My friend's daughter loved hanging out in the kids' club, which offered daily activities plus a large selection of games, toys, and even princess costumes.
For older kids, there's a teen club with foosball tables, bean-bag chairs, and a complete gaming set-up.
I've seen my fair share of kids' clubs during my travels, and this one stood out.
We could get endless treats at the 24-hour coffee shop.
There were plenty of yummy Mexican pastries to choose from.
Simone Paget
Azulinda, the property's 24-hour coffee shop, serves all-you-can-eat churros and gelato — plus other Mexican pastries, great espresso drinks, and excellent cold-brew coffee.
Azulinda also has made-to-order crepes — something I've never seen at another all-inclusive. My go-to afternoon snack was a ham-and-cheese crepe.
The food options went beyond what I've come to expect from an all-inclusive resort.
The food at Noriku was so delicious.
Simone Paget
Although there was no shortage of typical all-inclusive eats — like burgers, hot dogs, and nachos — I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of food available around the resort.
I loved the wood-fired pizza and creamy risotto at La Luce, an elegant Italian eatery. The pad thai at the Asian-fusion restaurant Noriku was also delicious.
The bars felt stylish and upscale.
I can't stop thinking about the passion-fruit margaritas.
Simone Paget
I didn't expect to find amazing cocktails at a family-friendly, all-inclusive resort. However, the beverages were inventive, and the bars felt surprisingly chic.
I'm still thinking of the passion-fruit margarita I had at the lobby bar, which was made with fresh juice and garnished with a preserved orange slice.
I also found excellent mojitos at the Instagrammable beach bar.
I spent plenty of time on the swings by the bar.
Simone Paget
There were so many cute, aesthetically-pleasing corners of this resort, and the beach bar in the Hilton Enclave area was no exception.
The bar makes an excellent mojito with fresh lime juice and mint. I loved hanging out on its swings and enjoying the ocean view with a drink in my hand.
The spa is one of the nicest areas of the resort.
I got to explore the different offerings after my massage.
Simone Paget
I'm so glad I went to the spa during my stay because it was one of the highlights of my trip.
After receiving an incredibly relaxing massage, I enjoyed the hydrotherapy circuit, which included a series of pools in a lush tropical garden.
Hilton Cancún Mar Caribe lives up to its name.
I can't wait to come back to the Hilton Cancún Mar Caribe resort.
Simone Paget
Mar Caribe, or the Caribbean Sea, is truly the star of this resort.
I loved so many things about my stay, but the beach was my favorite part. The water was impossibly turquoise and always the perfect temperature.
Paired with gorgeous weather and endless mojitos, I spent most of my days alternating between my lounge chair and swimming in the waves.
Everything about the resort impressed me, but this alone makes me want to visit Hilton Cancún Mar Caribe again.
Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, says that a “new paradigm of AI architectures” will emerge in the next three to five years, going far beyond the capabilities of existing AI systems. LeCun also predicted that the coming years could be the “decade of robotics,” where advances in AI and robotics combine to unlock a […]
It was a chilly night in Berkeley, California this past November when Sarah decided to stop by a buzzy after-party for an AI conference called The Curve. A year and a half ago, the 27-year-old had left her lucrative job as a trader in London to look for work in AI safety, which she considers the most important issue in the world, and she was eager to connect with others who felt the same. She certainly didn't expect to end the evening vilified as a Chinese spy.
At the party, the topic du jour was a recent article in The Economist, provocatively titled, "Is Xi Jinping an AI doomer?" Sarah, who was born in China a few hours from Shanghai, discussed the question with various AI researchers and policy analysts. Then one exchange turned sour.
"There's been rumors of espionage in Silicon Valley," Sarah recalled one person saying, "Like people preying on young, male, impressionable software engineers." The guy looked at Sarah. Uncomfortable, she excused herself from the conversation.
"I'm a Chinese national, but it's not like I'm a spy," she later recounted to another attendee.
Her comment was overheard by Samuel Hammond, an economist at the Foundation for American Innovation and an AI policy advisor for Project 2025. He posted it to X, where it attracted millions of views.
I was at an AI thing in SF this weekend when a young woman walked up. The first thing she said, almost verbatim: "I'm a Chinese national but it's not like I'm a spy or anything" *nervous laughter.*
I asked her if she thought Xi was an AI doomer and she suddenly excused herself. https://t.co/1mepDH6LRc
"So definitely a spy?" read one reply on X. "She was from Beijing and had a very posh accent," responded Hammond. (Sarah is from an entirely different part of China.) Other partygoers piled onto the speculation. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that," one said. Another insisted: "I can't dismiss the idea that she was CCP… If there's a plausible risk, & there is, she shouldn't be allowed in."
Sarah, who asked that I use just her first name, replied on X to clear up the confusion about why she left the conversation — it was cold and she had already been asked the same question by other people — but by then the exchange had reached escape velocity, spilling out across Silicon Valley. "Everyone knows," she said about the encounter. "I had to stop going to networking events. I just wanted this thing to die down."
As the race to develop advanced AI systems before China does ramps up, a new Red Scare has taken over the tech world. I spoke with Chinese workers and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional, personal, or legal repercussions, and found that Sarah's experience was far from rare. The same fear of Chinese espionage thatforced TikTok to shut down is now pushing out Chinese-born AI professionals at the exact moment that American AI experts report a critical talent shortage in the field.
Concerns over Chinese spying have been on the rise since the early 2010s, when the US escalated its efforts to address Chinese cyberattacks. In 2018, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump undertook a controversial "China Initiative," which aimed to prevent industrial espionage in the research community by investigating hundreds of academics suspected of having ties to China. It found only a few cases of actual spying.
The plurality of investigations, Bloomberg and MIT Technology Review reported in 2021, involved undisclosed funding and affiliations to Chinese institutions, while "just three claim that secrets were handed over to Chinese agents," Bloomberg wrote. Instead of catching spies, many cases just indicted professors for bureaucratic oversights — those found guilty claimed they didn't disclose their funding because they didn't think they had to.
The China Initiative's slipshod approach upended many people's lives. Gang Chen, a nanotechnologist, and Anming Hu, a physicist, were both US-based tenured professors who were arrested by the FBI, only for authorities to later realize they had made a mistake. During the yearlong investigations, Chen was barred from his university's campus, and Hu was suspended without pay and his work authorization revoked. (Though both were later reinstated to their positions, Chen said he would no longer take federal research funding). The suicide of the neuroscientist Jane Ying Wu last year came after a China Initiative investigation shut down her lab.
The Biden administration escalated Trump's competitive approach toward China. The 2022 CHIPS Act, whichaimed to bolster domestic production of semiconductors, the essential hardware powering AI, also restricted US investments, manufacturing, and research collaborations in China. Last April, Biden signed a bipartisan bill ordering the Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok on grounds of national security.
Whenever you say anything neutral about China, people will think, 'That's pro-China, and this person is bought by the CCP.'
Now, the fear of espionage has shifted to Silicon Valley. In June last year, AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner said he was fired from OpenAI for sharing concerns about foreign espionage with the OpenAI board. He then published a paper-cum-manifesto titled "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," about the race to AGI, or artificial general intelligence — what he calls the "most powerful weapon mankind has ever created," comparable to nuclear weapons. "If we're lucky, we'll be in an all-out race with the CCP; if we're unlucky, an all-out war," he wrote. In a section called "The Free World Must Prevail," Aschenbrenner paints a dystopian scenario where the Chinese Communist Party steals model weights and algorithms and uses them to target "advanced bioweapons" at "anybody but Han Chinese," "individually assess every citizen for dissent," and "enforce the Party's conception of 'truth.'" The paper was widely circulated in Silicon Valley and even shared to X by Ivanka Trump. (OpenAI has said the concerns Aschenbrenner shared with the board were not the reason he was fired.)
The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen entertained a similar thought experiment last March. "Let's assume that AI in 2024 is like atomic technology in 1943," he wrote on X. "What we see is the security equivalent of swiss cheese. My own assumption is that all such American AI labs are fully penetrated and that China is getting nightly downloads of all American AI research and code RIGHT NOW."
In response to mounting concerns, the Financial Times reported that Google, OpenAI, and several other US tech companies have tightened personnel screening. Some startups are turning to third-party tools like Strider Technologies, which scours public data to investigate individuals' connections to "state-sponsored risk," as Strider's website puts it. If a current or prospective employee is flagged by Strider's AI, FT reported that its "due diligence" process will then investigate their "family or financial links abroad as well as their travel history."
A spokesperson for Google said they hadn't stepped up their screening processes and told me that the company has "strict safeguards" for preventing the theft of trade secrets, "none of which are based on employees' nationality." OpenAI did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Meanwhile, members of the Chinese diaspora in Silicon Valley are feeling the strain and paranoia of geopolitical tensions pressing on their social and professional lives. One 26-year-old woman who works at a San Francisco startup said she was once called a "honeypot" by a dance partner at a local bar. "He told me he worked on a nuclear-related company," she said. "He was like, 'I cannot share anything with you. Are you looking at my phone? You don't seem like a honeypot, but I have to be careful given that you're a Chinese national.'"
As a tech worker, she has turned down AI-related job opportunities to avoid scrutiny for herself and her family from both the US and Chinese governments. She also tries to downplay her Chinese accent and cultural identity. "A lot of Chinese nationals don't agree with the Chinese government" on issues like Uyghur repression in Xinjiang, she said. "But in social situations, you have to vocalize it passionately just to lower the guard people have toward you."
We work for no government. We just want to build businesses.
Sarah affirmed this sentiment. She hoped to contribute to global AI safety work by bridging the information gap between Chinese- and English-language researchers and policymakers, but the hawkish environment has made collaboration difficult. "Whenever you say anything neutral about China, people will think, 'That's pro-China, and this person is bought by the CCP,'" she said.
Many Chinese startup founders are also deemphasizing their nationality. One founder of a consumer AI startup told me that an investor asked her to remove the word "China" from a pitch deck and replace it with "Asia." It's a notable shift from the start of the century when top venture-capital firms were eager to invest in Chinese super-apps and open China-based funds.
HeyGen, a generative-AI startupfounded in Shenzhen, dissolved its Chinese operation to rebrand and relocate to the US in 2023. It asked its Chinese investors to sell their equity, then raised a new Series A round from US- and UK-based funds to more easily purchase semiconductors under the CHIPS Act. One of HeyGen's original Chinese investors told me that it's now common for Chinese founders to turn down Chinese capital to avoid US governmental scrutiny.
Similarly, the TechCrunch journalist Rita Liao wrote that a Chinese company refused her coverage because her byline made them look "too Chinese." She said another Chinese founder told her: "We work for no government. We just want to build businesses."
Several people I spoke with described their situation as a "double bind." On one hand, they came to the US to pursue opportunities and liberties that Chinese society didn't afford them. But these days, eerily similar state and social sanctions are intruding on their work.
In some cases, the tensions are making it difficult for people from China to stay in the US. Ordinarily, foreign workers on visas who temporarily leave the US must get a stamp from a local US consulate before reentering. But more tech workers are being put through extra processing required for people working in sensitive industries before they can reenter the US, resulting in some people getting stranded abroad for months or years.
On forums for Chinese nationals, anxious students and professionals fret about how to avoid extended processing. "I work as a machine learning engineer in the Bay Area," reads one post from October. "I work on some AI product applications and do no core AI research. I thought that 'sensitive fields' referred to advanced defense research, but now I heard that any STEM field can be subject to checks. I'm feeling panicked."
Unlucky visa holders who get flagged have no choice but to appeal for an extended leave of absence from their university or workplace. One AI Ph.D. student wrote in November, "I have now waited for more than 130 days. My school has deferred me for one semester, but I cannot defer it again."
As tensions ramp up, many Chinese tech workers are reconsidering whether the American dream is worth the risk. When Microsoft offered its China-based employees a chance to relocate to another country, tensions between the US and China made some reluctant to take the offer, according to reporting by Rest of World. Going viral on X turned out to be a tipping point for Sarah. She returned to China in December. "Initially I was afraid of trouble on the Chinese side, but it turns out that the other side is more problematic," she said about the US.
It feels like we have this talent that no one wants.
Meanwhile, the US faces a critical talent shortage in AI. A 2021 report by the National Security Commission on AI found that the number of US-born STEM and AI doctorates is not nearly keeping pace with the industry's growth. While 42% of top-tier AI researchers worked in the US in 2022, only 18% of them received their undergraduate degree here, Macro Polo's AI Talent Tracker found. China is currently the largest source of these top-tier researchers — and more are choosing to stay in China.
"For the first time in our lifetime, the United States risks losing the competition for talent on the scientific frontiers," the NSCAI report says. "Immigration reform is a national security imperative."
Divyansh Kaushik, a tech and national security expert at Beacon Global Strategies, told me that America needs policies that are a "scalpel, not a sledgehammer." He recognizes the risk of espionage, citing China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, which legally obligates all Chinese citizens to "support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work." But Kaushik considers blanket bans on foreign nationals just as counterproductive. He instead pointed to policies that restrict students from specific Chinese-military-affiliated universities from obtaining visas. "There will be false positives and false negatives," but the US can mitigate the risk without overreaching, he told me.
Other experts believe that nationality-based anti-espionage efforts are more security theater than reality. Yangyang Cheng, a physicist and China researcher at Yale Law School, told me that AI risks "are not exclusive to Chinese firms or unique products of the Chinese authoritarian system." She cited examples of American professors who helped build biometric technologies for ethnic oppression in Xinjiang, arguing that we should be focused on preventing harm wherever it originates. She thinks the TikTok ban makes the same mistakes. "The focus on the Chinese government's subpoena power overlooks the many ways American companies cooperate with the state," she wrote for Wired.
It's unclear what stance this Trump administration will take. Some in Silicon Valley are hopeful that the president-elect will expand the visa program for high-skilled immigrants. During a recent intra-Republican fight over H-1B visas, Trump aligned with Elon Musk, telling supporters: "We need smart people coming into our country." But Trump's 2016 term oversaw higher costs, longer wait times, and increased denial rates for H-1B applicants. During a private dinner conversation in 2018 reported by Politico, Trump said, referring to China, "almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy."
Those who are staying in the US, meanwhile, say they feel exhausted. "I've been in the US for almost a decade," a Chinese-born data scientist and UC Berkeley graduate told me. "Many of us left to escape that political environment, and are the most liberal-leaning Chinese you can find. We spend so much time going through the American education and immigration system — and now the US says it doesn't welcome us either. It feels like we have this talent that no one wants."
Jasmine Sun is a writer covering tech, politics, and culture from San Francisco. She publishes a weekly newsletter on the "anthropology of disruption."
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Steven-Yeun-Fatherhood-020425-8fa8617a9aad4c5a83ebd6fe785a172b.jpg)
