On the eve of the National Two Sessions, Lv Guoquan, member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and Director of the Office of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, proposed in an exclusive media interview to incorporate the “right to offline rest” into the legal framework for the first time, which would increase the legal costs for companies imposing invisible overtime. This suggestion quickly became a hot topic of widespread public discussion.
It is understood that Lv Guoquan’s proposal has been formally put on the agenda and filed. Next, the relevant functional departments will conduct in-depth communication and provide feedback on this matter. During group discussions with personnel from the People’s Courts and the People’s Procuratorates, Lv also emphasized the importance of legislating the “right to offline rest” and suggested joint research with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security as well as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. He also believes that companies should provide compensation to employees who are required to work online after hours.
Lv Guoquan stated that obtaining basic living conditions at the expense of physical health is an unsustainable model for both companies and employees.
On the other hand, OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT consumes a significant amount of electricity, reportedly over 500,000 kilowatt-hours per day, to handle hundreds of millions of user requests. This astounding amount of electricity consumption is more than 17,000 times higher than the average daily consumption of an American household, which is 29 kilowatt-hours. Industry insiders predict that as generative artificial intelligence technology is further applied and developed, its electricity consumption may continue to rise.
Experts predict that by 2027, the field of artificial intelligence may consume between 85 to 134 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, a staggering figure.
Recently, media reports suggested that the former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment was considering acquiring the social media platform TikTok for as much as $100 billion. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, quickly denied the rumor on its official account, stating that the aforementioned report was not true.
In addition, China’s heavy truck manufacturer, FAW Jiefang, announced that its director Zhang Guohua and deputy general manager Tian Haifeng have applied to resign from their respective positions due to job changes. The resignations took effect upon receipt by the board of directors.
In the movie market, according to data from the movie data platform, the newly released film “Spicy Hot Rolling” earned $315,000 at the box office on its first day in North America, ranking in the top five on that day’s North American box office chart.
The domestic offshore wind power project with the largest individual unit capacity has “settled down” with the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) Harbor and Marine Bureau, marking a milestone event in Fujian. This offshore wind project—the CRRC Lianjiang Offshore Wind Project involving the construction of turbines’ foundations and installation (Phase II)—is the first large-scale project in China to use 18-megawatt wind turbines. This symbolizes that China Railway Construction Corporation has successfully entered the era of large megawatt offshore wind power industry.
There was a temporary downturn in passenger car market sales in February. Sales of high-end models increased significantly in proportion, indicating a trend of consumption upgrade. In contrast, the share of sales for mid and low-end models has declined, reflecting insufficient purchasing power at the lower end and intensifying price wars. The increase in petrol vehicle prices is not conducive to promoting consumption, thus, it is necessary to improve the purchasing power of the general public, to achieve market price balance and stable development of the primary consumer market, and to promote consumer upgrading.
Dong Mingzhu expressed her views on the phenomenon of her subordinates becoming internet celebrities. According to Southern Daily, Dong Mingzhu believes that regardless of position, if someone can bring benefits to the company, they should not be hindered from using any methods. This is her response to the internet celebrity status of employees and the controversy over Meng Yutong’s trending on social media. Meng Yutong was Dong Mingzhu’s chairman’s secretary and emphasized that she values every stage of growth and does not want to deny her past.
The new coronavirus variant BA.2.86 has evolved into a new serotype and may pose a risk of immune escape. A team led by the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, through research, has provided important data for the future development of new polyvalent broad-spectrum vaccines and neutralizing antibodies. They discovered through cross-neutralization experiments that the BA.2.86 serotype has a different antigenicity from receptor binding domains like XBB. If a vaccine designed based on the XBB antigen may not be able to resist infection of BA.2.86 and its derivatives, this means the new variant may lead to an increase in infections.
Scientists suggest that by systematically studying serotypes, new mutant virus strains can be quickly classified, and their immune escape capabilities assessed. Moreover, this research is also of great significance for the design of broad-spectrum polyvalent vaccines and neutralizing antibodies.
In the entertainment industry, the music documentary “Taylor Swift: The Era Tour Concert” has achieved remarkable box office success. After 69 days of release, it has broken through 100 million yuan in revenue, attracting 2 million viewers, of which 69% are female.
In the economic field, due to the continuous rise in gold prices, banks’ personal gold accumulation business has become very popular. The gold accumulation business allows investors to open accounts in commercial banks and buy gold in fixed amounts. Although the rise in gold prices has prompted state-owned banks to raise the threshold amount for regular savings, experts remind investors that investing in gold is not without risks.
In the tech industry, Sony responded to rumors about its mobile business operations in China, stating that its business operations, including mobile, are stable in China and that the company considers the Chinese market extremely important for its future development.
The semiconductor market is watching the movements of AMD, particularly as the company’s CEO Lisa Su and eleven other shareholders have reduced their holdings by 633,800 shares in the past three months. AMD’s stock price recently went through a rapid rise, with the company’s market value at one point exceeding 300 billion US dollars, creating a new historical high.
Furthermore, the X social platform, under the flag of Elon Musk, is planning to transform into a video platform and will soon launch applications for Amazon and Samsung smart TVs. This move indicates that the X platform intends to challenge YouTube, and is targeting other services such as Twitch, Signal, and Reddit.
In the field of display technology, Samsung Display Co. has initiated the construction project for the new 8.6th generation IT OLED production line, which is expected to start production in 2026. This move signifies Samsung’s determination to further consolidate its leadership in the global flat-panel display market.
Samsung Display plans to carry out a major renovation of its factory located in the central part of Ewha. The existing L8 production line will be transformed into the A6 line, which will specialize in the production of 8.6th generation OLED panels for IT equipment other than smartphones. This new production line will become the sixth OLED production line for Samsung Display. The company expects to install critical equipment this year, with the goal of starting large-scale production by 2026.
A leading global tire manufacturer, Goodyear, has announced that it will shut down its manufacturing plant in Malaysia on June 30th. This measure could affect over 500 employees. The closure is part of Goodyear’s corporate restructuring plan, aimed at reducing costs by $1 billion by the year 2025.
The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety recently detected traces of cesium, a radioactive substance, in a batch of candies from Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. South Korea originally planned to import 122 kilograms of this candy from Japan, but the import plan has been canceled due to the detection of cesium. According to data from the Ministry, cesium has been detected four times over the past year in products imported from Japan to South Korea, leading to the cancellation of import plans each time.
Germany is currently facing a severe wave of strikes. According to reports by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, following the strikes by train drivers and airport staff, the flight attendants’ union of Lufthansa is also planning to strike soon. As stated by Michael Grömling, an expert from the German Institute for Economic Research, these strikes could cause daily economic damage of up to 100 million euros. Some believe that these strikes could have a negative impact on the overall German economy.
In the field of smart AI, Robin Li, the founder of Baidu, recently claimed that Baidu’s Wenxin large model 4.0 has surpassed GPT-4 in Chinese language processing. He gave an example that the Wenxin model can create poetry according to a designated format, whereas GPT-4 cannot. Li Yanhong mentioned that the user number of Wenxin model has exceeded 100 million in the past year. Furthermore, with the AI-native restructuring of applications such as Wenku, the product’s various indicators have seen significant improvements.
In the wave of intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry, International Composite Materials has revealed plans to initiate application research based on AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content). Such R&D activities will effectively help the company quickly monetize its knowledge and data resources, thereby improving operational efficiency.
According to the latest report led by Shawn Kim’s team at Morgan Stanley, today’s investment in AI infrastructure is only at an early stage, far from the level of the Internet bubble in 1999. The report indicates that AI technology infrastructure is just beginning its broad developmental phase, and Nvidia’s position in this field is not limited to analogizing Cisco during the internet era.
During the dot-com bubble in 2000, Cisco’s financial performance was outstanding with a revenue growth rate of 59%, and the market had high expectations for its value, reflected in its forward price-to-earnings ratio of 138 times. In contrast, today’s tech giant Nvidia has a relatively lower price-to-earnings ratio of only 30 times, yet its revenue growth rate has reached a staggering 90%. Despite Nvidia’s significant stock market drop on Friday, which many interpreted as a sign of a bubble reminiscent of the past, commentators believe that, whether from the current development environment in the tech field or from the company’s own strength and market valuation, Nvidia is unlikely to repeat Cisco’s history. Nvidia is currently at the initial stage of building AI infrastructure, and the enormous potential of this area is yet to be fully unleashed. Every mega-scale enterprise is actively constructing infrastructure in the hope of developing new applications, tools, and services on this basis.
The challenges and difficulties faced by blind individuals in independently navigating increasingly complex traffic have always been critical social issues. With continuous improvements to accessible environmental construction, we can see the number of blind people independently venturing out on the streets steadily increasing. Behind this change, there are many design and innovation stories worth paying attention to.
Delving into this field, we came into contact with experts dedicated to providing accessibility services. They are on a mission: to design and improve products to better suit the needs of the blind community. In our conversations, they shared many touching moments and achievements, showcasing the subtle developments and pioneering solutions in the area of blind mobility.
We have compiled these stories of accessible transport services into an article, hoping to expand everyone’s a caring perspective toward this special community and enhance the public’s awareness and understanding of the importance of accessible travel.
