Newsletter: Playing God — Chinese Scientist “Produces” World’s First Gene-edited Twins

Nov 29, 2018, 10:11am Gabriel Li

Here is this week’s roundup of China tech stories.

Recently, Shenzhen scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of twins Lulu and Nana, who had their genes modified before birth. One of their genes is edited to resist the AIDS virus. This means that in the future we might be able to “customize” our babies, which is an ethical issue. According to He, the parents have been informed of the hidden off-target risks in gene sequencing and he will be responsible for the babies for the rest of his life.

Artificial Intelligence is the new cool: everyone is talking about it. Here is Nigerian reporter Solomon Elusoji’s review on Kai-Fu Lee‘s latest book AI Super powers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order.

“And from now on in all the interviews that I will do international I will say that the country of shit is China…” This was Stefano Gabbana’s response on Instagram when questioned about the allegedly racist Dolce & Gabbana commercial, with distorted western stereotypes on Chinese people. Is the commercial perhaps an accurate reflection of the two founders’ racist and narrow-minded views on China?

Have you ever thought of free internet access in the mountains or in the ocean? SpaceX has just received permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a network that blankets the earth in wireless Internet access. Now a Chinese company called LinkSure Network is making a similar attempt. Its new satellite network program — “LinkSure Swarm Constellation System” is expected to realize free satellite network around the globe by 2026.

More details below!