AI Pause Would Help Dominant Firms, Not Safety, Think Tank Warns
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The South Korean government denies plans to establish a think tank to "share" huge profits from chip manufacturers.
BlockBeats reported on July 1st that, according to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy issued a statement today formally denying rumors circulating online that the government plans to establish a new think tank to capitalize on the enormous profits of chip manufacturers. The statement said, "The rumors circulating online that Seoul has sent letters to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix regarding the proposed establishment of a government-led profit-sharing think tank are completely false. We will take strict measures against those who maliciously spread such misleading information and refer them to investigative authorities." This rumor comes against the backdrop of rising domestic debate over how to utilize the resulting additional tax revenue to support long-term growth, as the AI boom has driven record profits for South Korean chip manufacturers. Last month, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, in an interview with The Economist, proposed a universal basic income subsidy, stating that "a portion of the excess profits could be distributed to the general public," referring to the recent debate over how to share the chip manufacturers' exorbitant profits. The presidential office subsequently explained that the remarks were not directed at any specific company, but rather referred to the challenges South Korea must ultimately face in its AI transformation. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, as the dominant players in the global HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory) market, have seen their profits soar during this AI supercycle, and the social distribution of their enormous capital returns is increasingly coming into the policy discussion arena. According to Bitget market data, the South Korean KOSPI index closed down 2.04%, SK Hynix fell 3.4%, and Samsung Electronics fell 5.84%.
South Korean think tank: Chip boom offsets manufacturing weakness, South Korean economy still on recovery track
According to Odaily Odaily, a South Korean official think tank stated on Wednesday that the South Korean economy remains on a recovery track, with the booming chip industry offsetting the overall slowdown in manufacturing. The Korea Development Institute (KDI), in its monthly economic assessment report, noted that South Korea's exports continued their "strong" expansion, driven by robust demand related to artificial intelligence. South Korea's monthly exports surpassed the $100 billion mark for the first time in June, reaching $102.25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 70.9%, setting a new record. KDI stated, "Although the growth rate of semiconductor exports has slowed, export value remains strong, supported by continued price increases." Driven by surging demand for memory chips, semiconductor exports nearly tripled to $44.82 billion, marking the first time monthly exports have exceeded $40 billion. However, KDI noted a slight decline in manufacturing output as "the rapid growth momentum in the semiconductor sector has slowed, and other sectors remain sluggish." KDI added that high oil prices and a weakening Korean won against the US dollar could "continue to exert upward pressure on prices, increasing the risk of further interest rate hikes and thus dragging down the recovery in consumption." (Jinshi)
Crypto Group Warns Fed Could Use Banking Access to Squeeze Digital Asset Firms
The Blockchain Association is urging the Supreme Court to take up Custodia’s case, saying that broad Fed power over “master accounts” could be used to push crypto firms out of the banking system.
Google, Meta, and other tech companies, along with several crypto firms, have pledged to help combat the illegal wildlife trade.
PANews reported on June 22 that, according to Reuters, Google, Meta, TikTok, Alibaba, and several crypto companies pledged on Monday to help combat the illegal wildlife trade by using AI detection and other methods to identify and remove information about illegal wildlife product transactions from their platforms. These companies represent one-fifth of the global e-commerce market and 90% of global social media users. Companies like Vodafone will use AI for anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring on their M-Pesa mobile payment platform. Crypto and payment companies such as PayPal, TRM Labs, Chainalysis, and Luno pledged to cut off related funding flows. A UN report states that the wildlife trade generates $23 billion annually and threatens approximately one million species with extinction.
Australia warns unlicensed crypto firms of fines up to 10% of annual turnover
ASIC has recorded more than 45 digital asset-related license applications as its temporary enforcement relief approaches Sept. 30 expiration.
Microsoft is building a new team of approximately 6,000 people to help businesses deploy artificial intelligence at both the technology and strategic levels.
According to Beating's monitoring, Microsoft is assembling a new team of approximately 6,000 people dedicated to assisting enterprises in deploying artificial intelligence at the technical and strategic levels. Team members come from engineering, corporate training, management, and vertical industry backgrounds, and will be more deeply involved in client projects, helping to optimize model selection, reduce the cost of AI usage, and in turn influence Microsoft product iterations. Traditionally, such low-margin implementations are mostly handled by consulting firms, but in the AI phase, vendors including Palantir, Salesforce, and OpenAI have begun to send engineers to their clients, and Amazon Cloud announced a similar initiative this week. --------------------------------- Click the original link below to join Beating's AI news channel on Lark, monitoring global AI hotspots and news 24/7.