Chinese Exports Show Surprise Rebound --- Shipments to Russia more than doubled in March from year ago; demand in Asia grows

"HONG KONG -- China's exports bounced back sharply in March, a surprise that reflects greater demand in Asia and Europe as well as improved supply-chain conditions.

Another reason behind the result: Chinese exports to Russia more than doubled in March from a year earlier, highlighting warming economic ties between the two like-minded neighbors.

Outbound shipments from China climbed 14.8% in March from a year earlier, data from China's customs bureau showed Thursday, reversing the 6.8% decline recorded in the first two months of 2023 and ending a nearly half-year string of such drops stretching back to October.

The result blew away the 7% year-over-year contraction forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Imports into the world's second-largest economy fell 1.4% in March from a year earlier, better than the 5% drop predicted by polled economists and the 10.2% decline in the first two months of the year.

The better-than-expected outcome reflected a pickup in domestic activity after Beijing began abruptly dismantling Covid restrictions late last year that had hurt consumer sentiment and disrupted factory production.

Chinese exports to Russia more than doubled in March from a year earlier to a record $9 billion, according to calculations by the Journal based on the customs data, compared with a roughly 20% gain during the first two months of this year. Economists attributed the magnitude of the upswing to the low base of comparison from a year earlier in March 2022, just as Western countries began imposing sanctions on Russia in the wake of events in Ukraine.

For the full first quarter, goods shipments to Russia totaled $24 billion, up 48% from a year earlier -- though they still account for only 3% of China's total exports.

In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expected total trade between the two countries to reach $200 billion by 2024. Trade between Russia and China grew more than 30% last year to $189 billion.

The resilience in China's export data bolstered some economists' forecasts of gross domestic product growth in the first quarter to more than 4%, up from 2.9% in the last quarter of 2022. In the longer term, economists and Chinese officials remain cautious about how much trade can power China's overall economy through the end of the year.

While inflation appears to be easing in the U.S., the Federal Reserve is likely to consider another interest-rate rise in May, a move that could curb consumer spending.

The World Trade Organization last week forecast a 1.7% gain in the global goods trade for this year, up from its previous forecast of 1% -- though that is still slower than last year's 2.7% growth, thanks in part to geopolitical tensions and monetary tightening.

China's exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations jumped 35% in March from a year earlier to $56 billion, accelerating from a 9% increase during the first two months of the year." [1]

Gabrielius Landsbergis did not achieve the goal of blocking China's economy. He blocked Lithuanian economy instead. Let us kick out of the job Gabrielius Landsbergis. 

China needs a lot of energy to meet all this demand. Next winter energy will not be so cheap for Western Europe anymore.

1. World News: Chinese Exports Show Surprise Rebound --- Shipments to Russia more than doubled in March from year ago; demand in Asia grows
Xie, Stella Yifan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 Apr 2023: A.16.

„Amazon“ prisijungia prie „Microsoft“, „Google" dirbtinio intelekto (AI) lenktynėse, kurias skatina „ChatGPT“

   „Amazon.com Inc. debesų kompiuterijos padalinys ketvirtadienį paskelbė apie naujus dirbtinio intelekto pasiūlymus, tapdamas naujausiu technologijų milžinu, bandančiu pasipelnyti iš generatyvaus AI – technologijos, kuria remiasi ChatGPT.

 

     Skirtingai nuo Alphabet Inc. Google ir Microsoft Corp., kurios paskelbė apie produktus plačiajai visuomenei, Amazon Web Services skirta verslo klientams. Be naujų AI įrankių, bendrovė plečia prieigą prie pagal užsakymą pagamintų lustų, kurie, jos teigimu, gali paleisti AI programinę įrangą efektyviau ir pigiau nei konkurentai.

 

     „Visa ši sritis yra tikrai labai nauja ir tai tikrai pirmoji generatyvaus AI diena“, – interviu sakė „Amazon Web Services“ generalinis direktorius Adam Selipsky. „Daugybė skirtingų kompanijų sukurs daug išradimų."

 

     AWS, kuri yra didžiausia debesų kompiuterijos paslaugų teikėja pasaulyje, yra naujausia technologijų įmonė, kuri išdėstė savo generatyvinę AI strategiją. Populiariausios debesų kompiuterijos įmonės stumia naujus įrankius, kurie, jų teigimu, pakeis darbą ir kūrybiškumą, iš dalies tikėdamiesi atgaivinti vėstančią debesų kompiuterijos paslaugų paklausą.

 

     Trys didžiausios debesų kompanijos – AWS, „Microsoft“ ir „Google“ – pastaruoju metu savo pardavimų centre iškėlė generatyvųjį AI, siekdamos pasinaudoti didžiuliu susidomėjimu šia technologija, kuri sužavėjo vartotojus gebėjimu atlikti tokias funkcijas, kaip atmintinių rengimas ir kompiuterinio kodo kūrimas beveik žmogaus lygiu.

 

     „Šiuo metu visas pasaulis pamišo“, – sakė Shishir Mehrotra, AI dokumentų paleidimo įmonės „Coda“ generalinis direktorius ir ankstyvas AWS naujų dirbtinio intelekto produktų bandytojas.

 

     Jis sakė, kad dabartinis įmonių skubėjimas pasiruošti šiai naujai technologijai primena perėjimą nuo kompiuterių prie išmaniųjų telefonų.

 

     Kiekvienas debesų infrastruktūros lyderis pradėjo žymėti savo eismo juostas. „Microsoft“ pirmavo dėl kelių milijardų dolerių investicijų į „ChatGPT“ kompaniją „OpenAI“. „Google“ investavo šimtus milijonų į kitą generatyvų AI kūrėją „Anthropic“.

 

     „Microsoft“ ir „Google“ per jo pokalbių robotą „Bard“ taip pat investavo į AI įrankius, kurie daugiausia skirti vartotojams.

 

     AWS eina kitu keliu, kol kas vengdama didelių investicijų į išorinę AI įmonę ar vartotojams skirtus įrankius. Ji sako, kad nori veikti kaip neutrali platforma įmonėms, norinčioms įtraukti generatyvias AI funkcijas.

 

     „Manome, kad klientams prireiks daugybės skirtingų generuojamųjų dirbtinio intelekto modelių, skirtų įvairiems tikslams, ir mažai tikėtina, kad kuris nors modelis patenkins visus klientus ar net visus vieno kliento poreikius“, – sakė J. Selipsky.

 

     AWS parduoda prieigą prie kelių didelių kalbų modelių, leidžiančių įmonėms kurti generatyviąsias funkcijas iš daugiau, nei vieno.

 

     Tai strategija, kurios jau imasi kai kurios didelės technologijų įmonės, besineriančios į generatyvųjį AI.

 

     Pavyzdžiui, praėjusį mėnesį „Salesforce Inc.“ paskelbė apie generatyvųjį AI įrankį „Einstein GPT“, sukurtą remiantis „OpenAI“ technologija. Tačiau bendrovė taip pat turi jai priklausantį „Slack“ įrankį, sukurtą pagal „Anthropic“ Claude modelį.

 

     „Nemanau, kad generatyvusis dirbtinis intelektas yra rinka, kurioje vyrauja didžiulė „laimėtojų“ dinamika“, – sakė „Coda“ p. Mehrotra." [1]

1. Amazon Joins Microsoft, Google In AI Race Spurred by ChatGPT
Dotan, Tom.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 Apr 2023: B.2.

 

Amazon Joins Microsoft, Google In AI Race Spurred by ChatGPT

"Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud computing division announced new artificial intelligence offerings Thursday, becoming the latest tech giant to try to cash in on generative AI, the technology behind ChatGPT.

Unlike Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Microsoft Corp., which have announced products for the general public, Amazon's Amazon Web Services is targeting corporate customers. In addition to new AI tools, the company is expanding access to custom-made chips that it says can run AI software more efficiently and cheaply than competitors.

"This whole area is really, really new and it truly is day one in generative AI," said Adam Selipsky, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, in an interview. "There's going to be a lot of invention by a lot of different companies."

AWS, which is the largest provider of cloud computing services in the world, is the latest tech company to lay out its generative AI strategy. The top cloud companies have been pushing the new tools they say will revolutionize work and creativity, in part in hopes of reinvigorating demand for cloud-computing services that has been cooling.

The three largest cloud companies -- AWS, Microsoft and Google -- have put generative AI at the center of their sales pitches recently to try to capitalize on the explosion in interest in the technology, which has wowed users with its ability to perform functions like drafting memos and producing computer code at near-human levels of sophistication.

"The entire world is scrambling right now," said Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of AI document startup Coda and an early tester of AWS's new AI products.

He said the current rush for companies to ready themselves for this new technology resembles the shift from computers to smartphones.

Each of the cloud infrastructure leaders has begun marking out their own lanes. Microsoft has been in front thanks to its multibillion-dollar investment in the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI. Google has invested hundreds of millions into another generative AI developer, Anthropic.

Both Microsoft and Google, via its chatbot Bard, have also invested in AI tools that are aimed largely at consumers.

AWS is forging a different path, so far avoiding a major investment in an outside AI company or consumer-facing tools. It says it wants to act as a neutral platform for businesses that want to incorporate generative AI features.

"We believe that customers are going to need a lot of different generative AI models for different purposes, and it is unlikely that any one model is going to serve all customers or even all the needs of one customer," said Mr. Selipsky.

AWS is selling access to multiple large language models, allowing companies to build generative features off more than one.

It is a strategy that some big tech companies diving into generative AI are already taking.

For example, last month Salesforce Inc. announced a generative AI tool, Einstein GPT, that is built on OpenAI's tech. But the company also has a tool for Slack, which it owns, that is built on Anthropic's Claude model.

"I don't think generative AI is a market where there's a huge winner-take-all dynamic," said Coda's Mr. Mehrotra." [1]

1. Amazon Joins Microsoft, Google In AI Race Spurred by ChatGPT
Dotan, Tom.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 Apr 2023: B.2.