Caracas drivers experiencing satnav malfunctions after US strikes

Drivers in the Venezuelan capital Caracas have been experiencing frequent satnav malfunctions since the U.S. airstrikes on the country on Jan 3.

Local mobile phone navigation services fail to provide accurate positioning, while signal detectors show unusually high signal strength despite an inability to acquire location data.

In Caracas, the navigation malfunctions have disrupted daily life, especially for those whose jobs rely heavily on satellite-based navigation.

"There are too many navigation malfunctions recently. The GPS platforms we use, including Waze, fail many times. The signals are intermittent and unreliable. This prevents us from sending passengers to their destinations as planned," said a local taxi driver named José Torres.

"The navigation has been frequently malfunctioning lately. I encountered this again today. I received a delivery order to Macaracuay (eastern part of Caracas), but the GPS showed the destination as Prados del Este (northwestern part of Caracas). I got on the highway there. After driving five kilometers, the navigation told me to turn back and go to Macaracuay," said food delivery man Antonio Ramírez.

Analysts link the issues to electronic jamming of satellite signals by the U.S..

A U.S. military official confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that EA-18G electronic jamming jets took part in the Jan 3 operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The high-power jamming signals emitted by these aircraft are believed to have disrupted civilian communications and blinded Venezuela's air defense radar systems, facilitating the U.S. military operations.

An American scholar in satellite navigation and signal processing warned that transportation would be among the worst-affected sectors in Venezuela.

"Venezuela has many modern cities. They have dependencies on modern systems like GPS. And I would expect that mostly you're going to see the pain points in transportation, road-based transportation and also shipping vessels and fishing vessels, also aviation. And aviation I think is going to be hit the hardest," said Todd Humphreys, professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Caracas drivers experiencing satnav malfunctions after US strikes

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027