“AI has thrown developing economies a lifeline, and they should seize it,” Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group, said as the organisation launched its annual World Development Report.

“They do not need large models or big data centres to reap its benefits,” he added, advocating for the adaptation of lower-

A Chinese speaker today might describe their day at work as first making a “PPT” (a PowerPoint presentation) and then having to “PS tu ” (Photoshop an image). After clocking off, they might “ chang K” (sing karaoke) with friends before taking the “C wei ” (centre spot) in a group photo.

These novel phrases spring from the widespread habit of adopting English abbreviations directly into daily speech, usually pronounced letter by letter.

While this is the organic result of cultural exchange

When Liao Heng joined Huawei Technologies’ chip-design unit in 2016, he was sceptical about whether China could ever build world-class semiconductors.

A former child prodigy who entered Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 1987 at age 14 before moving to Princeton University for postdoctoral research, Liao had spent over a decade in the United States watching what he described as a “long sunset” for American chip start-ups.

Working abroad, he noted, often bred a “blind arrogance