Chinese President Xi Jinping is urging his national security operation to prepare for threats from inside as well as outside the country. Tech-enabled risks are top of mind for the head of the Chinese Communist Party—and AI is prominent among these.

“It is imperative to maintain political security, improve security governance of network data and artificial intelligence, [and] accelerate the development of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system,” Xi said May 31 in remarks delivered at a meeting of the CCP’s National Security Commission.

The address received coverage at XinhuaNet, an English-language site run by Xinhua News Agency, the official state news operation of the People’s Republic of China. The coverage was posted to a page titled “Xi’s Time.”

Xi emphasized points that might intrigue Western observers of China’s current thinking on AI and other emerging technologies. While he had little to say to those interested in healthcare AI per se, recent advances in generative AI across numerous industries surely warrant the attention of AI watchers across the board.

Among Xi’s points as paraphrased by XinhuaNet:

1. ‘More efforts must be made to modernize our (China’s) national security system and capacity, and get prepared for actual combat and dealing with practical problems.’
2. ‘The complexity and severity of national security problems faced by our country (China) have increased dramatically.’
3. ‘We (in China) must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters and even dangerous storms.’

The address has drawn copious coverage from U.S. and U.K. news outlets. Among the notable observations offered:

• “China has been cracking down on its tech sector in an effort to reassert party control, but like other countries it is scrambling to find ways to regulate fast-developing AI technology.”—Associated Press
   
• “[China] has also taken steps to strengthen state control over artificial intelligence, with a draft law unveiled last month requiring all AI products to undergo a security assessment before being released. AI products will be required to reflect ‘core socialist values’ and must not ‘contain content on subversion of state power.’”—The Guardian
   
• “China’s unbridled enthusiasm for new technology and willingness to tinker with imported or stolen research and to stifle inquiries into major events such as the COVID-19 outbreak heighten concerns over its use of AI.”—Yahoo! News

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Drug discovery company XtalPi (Cambridge, Mass.) is collaborating with pharma giant Eli Lilly on bringing AI and robotics to bear in the search for a therapeutic against a cancer target to be named later. XtalPi says Lilly will invest as much as $250 million to “harness the power of XtalPi’s proven one-stop AI drug discovery solution to deliver a novel compound.”  Lilly will use the resulting yield to pursue clinical and commercial development. Details.
   
• Cloud company Cloudera of Tel Aviv has been tapped by Israel’s largest state-mandated health system. The provider, Clalit Health Services, will use Cloudera’s data platform to remotely monitor patients while running AI-based clinical decision aids and simplifying data sharing between separate Clalit IT systems. Announcement here.
   
• Healthcare workforce automation startup Dropstat (Los Angeles) has closed a seed funding round good for $5.5 million. The company says it will use the monies to expand its market penetration with products designed to predict staffing needs far in advance and fill shift gaps with staff borrowed, in effect, from other departments and facilities. Details here.
   
• Care utilization platformer Loyal (Atlanta) is deploying patient-engagement software across 30-hospital, Tennessee-based Ardent Health Services. The company says the install, once completed, will “touch every part of the patient journey in Ardent facilities—from researching care and scheduling appointments to patient registration and post-care communications.”
   
• South Korean cancer-busting AI supplier Lunit (Seoul) is working with the largest oncology practice in Japan. The latter is the National Cancer Center Hospital East. The pair will use Lunit products to refine diagnostics and treatment plans for patients with colorectal cancer. Announcement.
   
• Nvidia has unveiled a line of supercomputers equipped with superchips. The super combo is designed to “expand the frontier of AI.” The technology won’t be commercially available till fall or winter, but Big Tech players—including Google, Meta and Microsoft—are already licking their chops. Coverage by Barron’s here.
   
• Researchers have used AI to detect signs of concussion so subtle that few (or no) imaging specialists could have picked up on them. The study was conducted with MRI experts at New York University, published in The Neuroradiology Journal and covered by Health Imaging.