China sanctions U.S. defense companies over Russia, Taiwan

China on Wednesday sanctioned 12 U.S. defense-related companies and 10 executives over arms sales to Taiwan in retaliation for earlier American sanctions on Chinese companies tied to Russia.

The entities include units of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and other companies. Senior executives of Northrop Grumman Corporation and General Dynamics also were targeted.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the measures came after the U.S. “indiscriminately imposed illegal unilateral sanctions on a number of Chinese entities on the grounds of so-called Russian-related factors” and that the U.S. “continued to sell arms to China’s Taiwan region.”

China claims the self-governed island as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.

The latest round of sanctions, imposed under China’s Anti-Foreign Sanction Law, will freeze all assets by the businesses inside China and denying the individuals and their immediate family members visas to enter the country, including Hong Kong and Macau.

The measures come in addition to those announced last year that barred Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp.’s Raytheon Missiles and Defense from importing goods into China or making new investments in the country.

Mastercard says it’s enlisting AI to find compromised cards

Mastercard said Wednesday that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal.

In its latest software update rolling out this week, Mastercard is integrating artificial intelligence into its fraud-prediction technology that it expects will be able to see patterns in stolen cards faster and allow banks to replace them before they are used by criminals.

“Generative AI is going to allow to figure out where did you perhaps get your credentials compromised, how do we identify how it possibly happened, and how do we very quickly remedy that situation not only for you, but the other customers who don’t know they are compromised yet,” said Johan Gerber, executive vice president of security and cyber innovation at Mastercard, in an interview.

Mastercard, which is based in Purchase, New York, says with this new update it can use other patterns or contextual information, such as geography, time and addresses, and combine it with incomplete but compromised credit card numbers that appear in databases to get to the cardholders sooner to replace the bad card.

Amazon to charge new fee for AI-infused Alexa, CNBC says

Amazon.com Inc. plans to charge Alexa users a monthly fee when it rolls out an AI-infused version of the voice assistant later this year, CNBC reported.

The Alexa subscription will help pay for the upgrade, the news site said, citing people familiar with the situation. The company hasn’t decided on a price, CNBC reported.

Amazon has previously announced plans to use generative artificial intelligence to make Alexa more conversational so it can compete better with chatbots from OpenAI and Google that can hold human-like conversations with users.

Amazon’s voice software, released about a decade ago, has proved adept at summoning trivia or playing music. But those who try to use Alexa for more complicated tasks often come away frustrated.

Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.