Microsoft has been quietly debating the future of its advanced AI lab in China, sources say.
The lab was opened in 1998 and has become one of the most important artificial intelligence hubs in the world, leading to advancements in the company’s speech, image and facial recognition software.
Microsoft Research Lab Asia (MSRA) opened at a time of optimism about China as an emerging democracy but as tensions between the US and the communist state have intensified, internal pressure has mounted to shut or scale it down.
That pressure has only intensified in recent months, after the Biden administration banned US investments in Chinese tech ventures that might aid the rival superpower’s ‘military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities.’
But, the tech giant’s founder Bill Gates continues to defend the lab and has pushed to keep it open, alongside Microsoft’s research leaders and its current president.
Microsoft has been quietly debating the future of its advanced AI lab in China, with founder Bill Gates supporting the lab. When Gates visited China last June (above), President Xi Jinping warmly described the tech mogul as ‘the first American friend I’ve met with this year’
Microsoft’s internal handwringing has reportedly intensified as the Biden administration prepared its ban on any new US investments in Chinese tech ventures that might aid the rival superpower’s ‘military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities’ (file photo)
The tech giant’s roughly $1 billion worth of AI investments in the Asia country has been mutually beneficial, netting Microsoft $212 billion in revenue last fiscal year, and nurturing local talent highly valued by China’s military-industrial complex.
Alumni of Microsoft’s AI lab in China have gone on to key posts at the nation’s domestic tech giants, with two heading-up the facial recognition developer Megvii — which has helped China power its vast national surveillance system.
When Bill Gates visited China last June, after a three year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic, President Xi Jinping warmly described the mogul as ‘the first American friend I’ve met with this year.’
Four current and past Microsoft employees, who spoke to the New York Times anonymously, said that the company’s top leaders are split on the future of Microsoft’s MSRA, which has offices in both Shanghai and Beijing.
Microsoft’s current CEO, Satya Nadella, and its president, Brad Smith, have been debating what to do with the lab over the past year.
The tech giant’s founder Bill Gates and the company’s research leaders — including Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott and Microsoft’s head of research Peter Lee — remain strident defenders of the lab: MSRA’s Shanghai AI/ML Group (above)
But, the tech giant’s founder Bill Gates and the company’s research leaders — including Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott and Microsoft’s head of research Peter Lee — remain strident defenders of the lab.
Scott and Lee, according to two sources who spoke to the Times, have argued that the lab has yielded critical breakthroughs in AI, via MSRA’s Shanghai AI/ML Group.
In a statement to the Times, Microsoft president Brad Smith appeared to echo the line pushed by Gates, who still regularly advises the company’s executives.
‘The lesson of history is that countries succeed when they learn from the world,’ Smith said. ‘Guardrails and controls are critical, while engagement remains vital.’
Those guardrails include restrictions on work related to quantum computing, facial recognition software and synthetic media, a catch-all term that includes ‘deep fakes’ and AI-generated vocal impersonations, according to Microsoft.
The tech giant also stated that its policies prevent the hiring of Chinese students and researchers whose CVs have placed them at any university affiliated with the Chinese military.
But there have nevertheless been gaps: MSRA’s satellite lab in Vancouver grants researchers free access to the supercomputing power and OpenAI systems needed for cutting-edge AI research, two sources said.
In a statement to the Times, Microsoft president Brad Smith appeared to echo the line pushed by Gates (left), who still regularly advised the company’s executives. ‘The lesson of history is that countries succeed when they learn from the world,’ Smith said
This past May, Microsoft revealed that Chinese hackers had targeted ‘critical’ infrastructure in the US territory of Guam, sparking fears that Beijing might be testing US cyber-defenses in preparation for a communications ‘black out’ needed to launch a rumored assault on Taiwan
While Microsoft has bristled in response to some of China’s surveillance and censorship expectations, shutting down LinkedIn within the Asian country over compliance issues, it has sometimes bowed to those same demands.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine, now the only foreign search engine in China, has followed the Chinese government’s censorship policies, for example.
And the company offers corporate clients in China access to regulated versions of the Windows operating system, its cloud computing and applications as well.
Adding to the tensions, Microsoft revealed that Chinese hackers had targeted ‘critical’ infrastructure in the US territory of Guam, this past May, sparking fears that Beijing might be testing US cyber-defenses in preparation for a communications ‘black out’ needed to launch a rumored assault on Taiwan.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed that China was behind the breach, which struck multiple government and private sector organizations.
Tom Burt, head of Microsoft’s threat intelligence unit, said his team found that the attack hit key nodes in Guam’s telecommunications sector.
China’s apparent focus on Guam is of particular concern, as the US territory is a key military base in the Pacific, and would be a major staging ground for any American response in the event of a conflict in Taiwan or the South China Sea.
Despite Microsoft’s active role in these international tensions, Gates maintains his own ties to China via his philanthropic organization, the Gates Foundation.
The foundation recently pledging $50 million to Beijing’s municipal government and one top university in China.
While Gates began stepping away from Microsoft in 2008, devoting more time to these philanthropic projects, no longer even a member of Microsoft’s board of directors, the billionaire remain the company’s largest individual shareholder.
Alongside his advising of Microsoft’s executives, Gates owns an estimated $35 billion worth of stock in the firm, according to financial data analysts with FactSet.
