Search
Sections
Sections

Commentary

Podcast

Introducing Techstream: Where technology and policy intersect

May 8, 2020

A view of Zhangbei data center of Alibaba is pictured in Zhangbei county, Zhangjiakou city, north China's Hebei province, 12 September 2016.China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is expanding its cloud facilities vigorously. After announcing a cloud data center in Silicon Valley in the US this March, it has launched a large cloud data center in North China. The Zhangbei cloud data center broke ground in the Miaotan Industrial Park in Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, in April 2015. It is expected to host 80 percent of Alibaba's cloud and big data in North China and to serve as the group's North China settlement center. Currently, cloud only accounts for one percent of Alibaba's total income, but the group has bet its future on cloud. The Zhangbei data center, which covers about 165 acres, will cost 18 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion), according to Haifeng Qu, research fellow in the technical support department of Alibaba.No Use China. No Use France.

On this episode, a discussion about a new Brookings resource called Techstream, a publication site on brookings-edu-2023.go-vip.net that puts technologists and policymakers in conversation. Chris Meserole, a fellow in Foreign Policy and deputy director of the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, explains what Techstream is and some of the issues it covers.

Also on the episode, Darrell West, the vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings, answers a listener’s question about how the coronavirus might affect the U.S. presidential election.

Related Content:

Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Authors

Chris Meserole, Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Chris Meserole Director - Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology

Fred Dews Managing Editor, New Digital Products - Office of Communications
More On
Project

Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative