Trying to improve its bitter relationship with Chinese government, Microsoft has signed an agreement with China’s leading security firm Qihoo for development of mobile internet and artificial intelligence technology, a report by state-owned media agency Xinhua said.
The two companies on Monday shook hands to “cooperate in mobile Internet products” and “technology exchanges in artificial intelligence.” This alliance comes a couple of weeks after China prohibited the use of Windows 8 in state government, citing security concerns.
Last month, China’s central government banned the use of Windows 8 from all its offices. However, the “surprised” Microsoft assured that it will keep working with the government. Later, the Chinese authority expressed its concern over Microsoft spying on them by collecting data. The government said that it is afraid that Windows 8 could be used to spy on them.
Microsoft isn’t the only company Chinese government is having trouble trusting, as it considers most of the US companies the same. After Edward Snowden’s infamous leak of classified documents about the existence of surveillance programs and their controversial activities, things only got worse.
