Asian Tech Roundup: Most outsourced coders 'out of a job in 2 years'

Plus, China's internet 'security barrier'

Emad Mostaque the CEO of Stable Diffusion maker Stability AI, warns that AI will put most outsourced coders in India out of a job within two years. Source
Google has said a court order directing it to charge a lower 4% in-app payment rate for Disney+ is a temporary measure while court proceedings play out. Google normally charges as much as 26% in service fees. Source
India has successfully launched a moon mission that will attempt to land a spacecraft at the lunar South Pole. Source Infosys has entered into a framework agreement with an unnamed client to provide AI and automation-led services, in a deal worth an estimated $2 billion. Source
Investor Prosus says troubles Indian edtech firm Byju's reporting and governance structures were insufficient for a company of that size. "Despite repeated efforts from our director, executive leadership at BYJU'S regularly disregarded advice," it said. Source
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology shared information on alleged tax evasion by Chinese smartphone manufacturers, pointing a finger at Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. Source
The Ministry also wants all mobile phones sold in India to include FM radio so the government can disseminate real-time information to poorer communities during emergencies. Source

Visitors to China can now pay with WeChat Pay and Alipay rather than cash by linking their credit cards to the apps. Source
Alibaba has decided that it will not sell any shares to Ant Group under the proposed share repurchase, so as to maintain its shareholding in Ant Group. Source
The USA's Semiconductor Industry Association trade group has called on the Biden administration not to restrict future chip sales to China. The group made the comments in response to expected updates to the existing sanctions against the country. Source
China's dominant EV manufacturers eye up Europe. Source
China's AI rules: adhere to the core values of socialism, don't incite others to subvert state power, avoid undermining unity. Source
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has pledged to expand the computing power needed to drive advances in generative AI. It intends to introduce measures to guide "high-quality" development of computing networks and large language models. Source
Xi Jinping has ordered Communist Party officials to build a "security barrier" around China's internet. It's unclear how the barrier differs from the Great Firewall, but the instruction seems to signal an even more isolationist approach to the internet. Source

South Korean electronics giant Samsung starts production of UFS 3.1 flash memory chips that cut energy consumption by 33%. Source
At the same time, Samsung announced it was cutting production of some lines, after a record 8.9 trillion won ($7 billion) operating loss in the first six months of this year . Source
South Korea's LG has unveiled an update to its Exaone AI model. Exaone 2.0 can understand images and learn in both Korean and English. LG has demonstrated how it can be used across its business. Source

Hideki Murai, a special AI adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, has said Japan needs to "rapidly" grow its computing power to compete in the AI race. The country plans to expand its supercomputing power from 0.8 exaflops today to 2.8 exaflops by the end of next year. Source
A Japanese space rocket engine has exploded during flight, in a setback for the country's space mission. Source

Land-poor Singapore mulls augmented reality tourist attractions. Source
Silicon Box, a Singapore-based semiconductor integration startup formed by executives from Marvell, launched a $2 billion foundry to manufacture high-performance chips using sub-5nm technology. Source

A threat actor compromised an application used by many companies, banks and government agencies in Pakistan to deliver a back door. Source
HP says it will diversify away from China, moving some PC and server production to Thailand and Mexico. Source
US bill aims to reduce taxes on Taiwanese businesses and workers in the US in return for similar measures for Americans in Taiwan. Source
TSMC is planning to spend US$2.9 billion on a second chiplet packaging facility in Taiwan. Source