04/02/2025

TUESDAY | FEB 4, 2025

FOLLOW

ON INSTAGRAM

8

Malaysian Paper

@thesundaily @t

OpenAI announces new ‘deep research’ tool

Taiwan president calls for talks with China TAIPEI: Taiwan and China need to talk to each other to achieve peace given the “multifold changes” in the international situation, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said yesterday, calling for dialogue instead of confrontation. Lai, who China detests as a “separatist”, has repeatedly called for talks with Beijing, which has stepped up its military and political pressure against the democratically-governed island it sees as sovereign Chinese territory. But both China and Taiwan face pressure from the new administration of US President Donald Trump, who has imposed tariffs on China and threatened similar measures against imported semiconductors, a sector Taiwan dominates. Speaking in Taipei to members of the Taiwanese business community who have invested in China, Lai said Taiwan and China’s common enemies were natural disasters and their common goal was the well-being of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. “Therefore, we should, especially at a time of multifold changes in the international situation, have a good dialogue and exchanges between the two sides of the strait to achieve the goal of peace,” he said. Taiwan very much welcomes talks with China on the basis of equality without preconditions and dialogue should replace confrontation, but Taiwan’s future can only be decided by its people, Lai said. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China says Taiwan must accept that the two sides of the strait are part of“one China”, something Lai and his government have refused to do. Lai said there can be no illusions about peace, and Taiwan should aim for peace through strength by bolstering its defences, and must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other democracies. “Only with sovereignty is there the country. Only with Taiwan is there the Republic of China,” he said, referring to the island’s formal name. The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communist forces, who set up the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. – Reuters Taipei told to move Pretoria office TAIPEI: The South African government has told Taiwan to relocate by the end of March its de facto embassy in Pretoria, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said. South Africa severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 and only maintains formal, and very close, relations with China, which views the democratically governed island as Chinese territory with no right to the trappings of a state. In a statement late on Sunday, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said South Africa’s government had sent a letter in late January demanding the de facto Taiwanese embassy leave Pretoria before the end of March and “even be renamed as a trade office”. The demand “shows China’s suppression against us in South Africa is becoming more serious”, it said, adding that negotiations between Taiwan and South Africa were ongoing. The de facto South African embassy in Taipei did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did China’s Foreign Ministry. South Africa had previously made a request last year for what is called the Taipei Liaison Office to leave Pretoria. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner globally and one with which it is looking to expand cooperation in areas such as renewable energy. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says it has a right to forge ties with other countries. – Reuters

o Tech giant promises super fast response times

find, analyse and synthesise hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst,” the company said in a statement. Altman said deep research, which paid “Pro” ChatGPT users can access 100 times a month, was “slow” and required a lot of computing power. But he was more bullish on stage at a business forum in Tokyo. “This is a system that I think can do, this is just an estimate of mine, but I think can do a single-digit percentage of all economically valuable tasks in the world,” Altman said. SoftBank and OpenAI are part of the Stargate drive announced by US President Donald Trump to invest up to US$500 billion (RM2.2 trillion) in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Similar steps to build AI data centres and power plants in Japan could be announced when Altman and Son meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the Nikkei newspaper said. Son announced a new joint venture equally split between the two companies. Holding a purple crystal ball, the Japanese

tycoon outlined the services of an AI product called Cristal, which can crunch firms’ system data, reports, emails and meetings. A joint statement said SoftBank would “spend US$3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies”. The venture “will serve as a springboard for introducing AI agents tailored to the unique needs of Japanese enterprises while setting a model for global adoption”, it said. Altman told the Nikkei he wanted to develop “a new kind of hardware” using artificial intelligence in partnership with Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive. But Altman indicated it would take several years to unveil a prototype, the Nikkei said. Altman also told the newspaper that DeepSeek is “a good model” that highlights the serious competition for AI reasoning technology, but that its “capability level isn’t new”. DeepSeek’s performance has sparked a wave of accusations that it has reverse engineered the capabilities of leading US technology. – AFP

TOKYO: US tech giant OpenAI yesterday unveiled a ChatGPT tool called “deep research” that can produce detailed reports, as China’s DeepSeek chatbot heats up competition in the AI field. The company made the announcement in Tokyo, where OpenAI chief Sam Altman also trumpeted a new joint venture with tech investor SoftBank Group to offer advanced artificial intelligence services to businesses. Altman and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son will meet the Japanese prime minister later and will reportedly announce plans to boost Japan’s AI infrastructure. OpenAI, whose ChatGPT led generative AI’s emergence into public consciousness in 2022, said its new tool “accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours”. “You give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will

MIGRANT RALLY ... Protesters holding Mexican flags block the Santa Ana Freeway during a demonstration in support of immigrants in Los Angeles on Sunday. The new US administration has ramped up deportations, including by relaxing rules governing enforcement at ‘sensitive’ locations such as schools, churches and workplaces. – AFPPIC

Meteor Garden star Barbie Hsu dies at 48 TAIPEI: Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu (pic) , who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama Meteor Garden , has died from a respiratory illness. She was 48. elsewhere also paid tribute to her. Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, who starred with Hsu in another Taiwanese drama, said he was “in shock and deep grief” over her death.

Hsu and her younger sister Dee rose to fame in the 1990s as a pop duo before switching to hosting TV shows and acting. It was the elder Hsu’s role as Dong Shan Cai in Taiwan’s popular 2001 television series Meteor Garden that made her a star across Asia. The show about an ordinary girl attending an elite university was originally based on a Japanese manga series. It was later remade in China and now screens on Netflix. Hsu’s acting career dimmed in recent years but appearances in reality television shows and dramas in her off-screen life kept her in the celebrity gossip pages. Hsu married Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei in 2010 and they had two children, Taiwanese media reported. The couple divorced in 2021, and the following year Hsu tied the knot with an ex boyfriend, South Korean DJ and singer Koo Jun-yup. – AFP

“I’ve heard that truly brilliant souls are never dimmed by time, they remain vibrant, like bubbles shining in the sun,” Huang said on Weibo. Filipino fan Edmalyn Canton wrote on Facebook: “Thank you for bringing joy to my childhood. You will always be my favourite version of Meteor Garden and will forever be remembered.”

Hsu passed away after developing pneumonia during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday, the younger of her two sisters was quoted as saying. “My dearest and kindest sister Barbie Hsu sadly left us due to influenza complications that led to pneumonia,” the younger Hsu said in a statement. “I’m grateful to have been her sister in this lifetime, to take care of each other, accompany each other, I will forever be thankful to her and miss her.” Hsu’s death was the top trending topic on China’s Weibo platform yesterday. Fans in Taiwan, the Philippines and

Stacy Hsu, a Taiwanese celebrity, posted on Facebook that Hsu’s “beauty and intelligence will forever remain in our hearts”. Animal rights group Peta said it was “heartbroken”over Hsu’s death, noting she was “one of the first and biggest stars” to support the organisation.