Big Blue smoke

摘要

Recent headlines suggest that American technology firms are suffering from a backlash in China because of attempts in Washington to prosecute alleged Chinese cyberhackers. But one Western firm has found a way to make itself indispensable: by using its technology to tackle a big local problem. This week ibm revealed that it has signed a ten-year research agreement with the government of Beijing to help the city's fight against pollution. Chinese officials have promised to slash levels of pm2.5 (a harmful air pollutant) by a quarter by 2017. Under the accord, ibm's researchers will harness the firm's expertise in supercomputing, big-data analytics and weather forecasting to predict the levels of pm2.5 three days in advance. This will better enable the government to shut factories, restrict vehicles and alert citizens.