For years, the discussion around China’s AI ambitions has focused heavily on computing power. US restrictions on advanced semiconductors have made access to high-end AI chips one of the most visible obstacles facing Chinese technology companies. Now, another constraint is coming into focus: data. Chinese AI researchers are warning that the country faces a shortage of high-quality Chinese-language material for training increasingly capable AI models. According to the South China Morning Post, the problem could become a major bottleneck that cannot be solved simply by finding alternatives to restricted hardware. The issue is also much larger than China. Estimates suggest…
Release 256 continues Icecat’s platform evolution with progress on the next-generation Gallery, new user-organization membership management in Brand Cloud, improved distributor catalog imports, and usability enhancements across Icecat.biz. The release also includes reliability and maintenance improvements that strengthen the foundation for future development. For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes. Next-Generation Gallery: From Foundation to Integrated Image Management In the previous release, we introduced the direction of Icecat’s next-generation Gallery, including locale-specific image ordering and customer-specific galleries. Release 256 takes the next step: building the technical foundation required to make these capabilities reliable, secure, and fully…