{"id":1995176,"date":"2023-08-09T09:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T13:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-mit-helped-develop-tech-for-a-chinese-company-that-surveils-uyghurs\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T09:53:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T13:53:35","slug":"how-mit-helped-develop-tech-for-a-chinese-company-that-surveils-uyghurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-mit-helped-develop-tech-for-a-chinese-company-that-surveils-uyghurs\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT&#8217;s involvement in developing surveillance technology for a Chinese company monitoring Uyghurs."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-mit-helped-develop-tech-for-a-chinese-company-that-surveils-uyghurs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1995176&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Prestigious\u200b university partnered with twice-sanctioned SenseTime to advance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-taylor-greene-dems-police-reform-bill-attacks-law-enforcement\/\" title=\"Rep. Taylor Greene: Dems\u2019 police reform bill attacks law enforcement\">facial recognition technology<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<p>      Uyghur men gather to\u200b pray in the\u2063 far western Xinjiang province \/ Getty \u2062Images<br \/>\n\u2063<br \/>\n    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The \u200dMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has collaborated with \u200dSenseTime, a \u200dChinese company \u2064that has been sanctioned twice,\u200d to push the boundaries of facial recognition technology, according to a\u2063 review by the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>. The review discovered \u2064that SenseTime, China&#8217;s largest facial \u200brecognition company, made an undisclosed donation to MIT in 2018. The donation\u200c funded \u206220 out of \u206422 research papers \u200dthat focused on or mentioned &#8220;neural networks,&#8221; a key component of\u2064 facial recognition technology. Additionally, 14 of\u200c the papers covered image data or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mit-took-chinese-money-to-research-ai-the-university-may-also-have-helped-the-ccp-surveil-uyghurs\/\" title=\"MIT accepted funding from China for AI research and potentially aided in Uyghur surveillance.\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/s-koreas-naver-to-acquire-u-s-fashion-social-commerce-poshmark-for-1-6-billion\/\" title=\"S.Korea\u2019s Naver to acquire U.S. fashion social commerce Poshmark for .6 billion\">image recognition<\/a> algorithms<\/a>. Notably, two researchers associated with Zhejiang University, which \u200dworks on classified projects\u2064 for the Chinese military, co-authored one of \u2062the papers with MIT researchers on &#8220;artificial \u200bneural\u200c networks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the specific use of the research funded \u200cby SenseTime remains unclear, it is worth noting that the company&#8217;s facial recognition technology has reportedly been utilized by China\u2063 to commit\u2062 human rights abuses against\u200d Uyghur Muslims. SenseTime&#8217;s technology is part of a secretive system employed by the Chinese \u200bgovernment to \u2062track and control Uyghurs, as reported by the <em>New \u2064York Times<\/em> in 2019. Consequently, the Trump administration blacklisted SenseTime in 2019 for its \u2062involvement in the repression\u2063 and surveillance of \u2063Uyghur Muslims. The Biden administration later \u2063banned U.S. investment in SenseTime in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>SenseTime&#8217;s funding of MIT research exemplifies\u200d China&#8217;s ongoing efforts to influence American higher education and gain access to valuable intellectual property generated by U.S. universities. Over the past decade, China \u2063has contributed more\u200d to U.S. universities than any other foreign nation, as highlighted in a\u2062 report by the \u2062House Foreign\u2064 Affairs Committee. Some of these contributions come from individuals \u2062and groups associated with the Chinese military. For instance, a \u200bChinese tech billionaire who aided the People&#8217;s Liberation Army in \u2063developing &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/controversial-chinese-tech-billionaire-gives-millions-to-elite-american-universities\/\" title=\"Controversial Chinese Tech Billionaire Gives Millions to Elite American Universities\">force modernization plans<\/a>&#8221; has \u200bdonated $5 million to MIT and serves on advisory boards for Yale and Cornell, according to the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2064majority\u2063 of\u200b the\u2063 research papers\u2063 funded by SenseTime at MIT revolve around neural networks, which play a\u200b crucial role in \u2064training systems to recognize\u2062 complex facial patterns. The research also encompasses convolutional neural networks, which are particularly effective in image recognition. As \u200cMIT published its papers on neural networks and \u2064image recognition,\u200d SenseTime \u200dfiled 47 patent applications with \u200cthe\u200d World\u2062 International Patent Organization for facial and \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-mit-helped-develop-tech-for-a-chinese-company-that-surveils-uyghurs\/\" title=\"MIT's involvement in developing surveillance technology for a Chinese company monitoring Uyghurs.\">image recognition\u200d technology utilizing neural networks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018,\u200b MIT and SenseTime announced their &#8220;Alliance \u200bon Artificial Intelligence&#8221; along with an undisclosed financial gift from SenseTime. MIT \u2063stated\u2064 that\u200b the funds were used for unrestricted research. However, MIT\u2063 reevaluated its relationship with SenseTime following the 2019 sanctions imposed\u200c by the Trump \u200dadministration. The university only halted its \u200dSenseTime-funded research after the company faced additional sanctions two years\u2062 later.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Biden\u2064 administration&#8217;s 2021 sanctions on SenseTime, MIT chose not to return \u2064the gift. Instead, the university suspended any new uses of the funding and paused research proposals that could have\u2064 been funded by the donation. MIT did\u200c not provide further details regarding the donation amount or the content of the research.<\/p>\n<p>SenseTime is not the\u200c only controversial Chinese entity \u2062that MIT has collaborated with for research purposes. Two researchers associated with Zhejiang University, which supports three Chinese military research labs, co-authored one of\u2063 the SenseTime-funded papers. Zhejiang University\u200b has been flagged by\u2062 the\u2064 U.S. government for engaging in\u200c scientific and economic espionage. In 2013,\u200b the FBI arrested a Chinese researcher for stealing \u200cU.S. cancer research to share with \u200dZhejiang University.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Biden and Trump administrations have recognized China&#8217;s treatment\u2062 of Uyghurs as \u2064a genocide. Up to two million Uyghur Muslims are currently \u2064held in detention camps in Xinjiang, \u200cwhere they are subjected to political reeducation, forced labor, and forced sterilization. Xinjiang is not only known for\u2064 its textile industry but also for its production of polysilicon, a key material\u2063 used in solar panels.<\/p>\n<p>SenseTime has vehemently denied the accusations against it, stating that they are \u2063unfounded and reflect a \u2062misunderstanding of \u200cthe company. The company \u200bexpressed \u200cregret for being caught in the midst of geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uyghur men in Xinjiang. MIT collaborated with SenseTime, a sanctioned Chinese firm, to enhance facial recognition tech. This technology has been employed by its Chinese partner to monitor and detain Uyghur Muslims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2083,"featured_media":1995177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1995176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2083"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1995176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1995177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1995176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1995176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1995176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}