Washington has framed its China containment strategy around the concept of a "small yard, high fence." Huawei and DeepSeek suggest the policy is an abject failure.
Our species has some serious work to do. Here we are on a very small blue wet rock some 15 billion years old with a paper thin atmosphere and nowhere to go (you’re wrong Elon). Also no one is coming to help us (eat us? maybe.)
So here we are third sphere from our star on the outer outskirts of our galaxy which one of billions of galaxies we know about. So really, we are nothing in this world of ours, no one knows or cares about earth and these humans and their toys.
Yet we invent gods and a self-view that we are the GOAT of the universe. How completely delusional we are.
US vs China vs Russia vs EU? DeepSeek vs OpenAI? Tesla vs BYD? Chiefs vs Eagles? Come on, it doesn’t matter, never will.
What if we could look at ourselves from a wider perspective and cooperate, not compete. All we need to do is work together as a species to make a better life for all of us.
But no, we are like people stranded on an island fighting with each other and competing to the point that our island becomes a version of survivor.
We have such a very short lifespan and we waste our time together on the most trivial of things and waste our blink of an eye on earth.
I was struck when Bezos took Willian Shatner (aka Captain Kirk) into space and he hated it. He was shocked how much he hated space in comparison to the beauty and miracle of earth.
I’m sorry to say it but as a species we generally suck!!
Wow! A very deep take on the DeepSeek melodrama! Hard to argue with your take, Michael. Maybe John and Yoko nailed it all those years ago with “Give Peace a Chance.” Meanwhile , the enlightened Senator (and Yale grad) Josh Hawley has introduced a bill to ban DeepSeek. And the red-baiting House Select Committee on China is raising concerns about performances of China’s National Ballet at the Kennedy Center.
Compelling arguments. I still worry about the point you make in the final sentence above— the animal spirits that spawn both curiosity and desire you stress. As I wrote: “some big political questions remain on China’s ultimate AI potential. That is true from the standpoint of domestic Chinese politics. China’s 2021 regulatory crackdown underscored internal “red lines” both for Internet platform companies and social “bad habits” pertaining to gaming, video streaming, fan culture, and private tutoring. I have argued that this reflected the CCP’s growing discomfort with animal spirits, long a key force underpinning new technologies and innovation. Will AI-enabled innovation challenge these same red lines that seemed so threatening just four years ago?”
Innovation and creativity in the face of scarcity, and in response to need and opportunity, are deeply embedded in Chinese culture. Of interest, here are remarks from DeepSeek’s founder in July, as reported by Reuters.
"China's AI can't be in the position of following forever. We often say that there is a gap of one or two years between China's AI and the United States, but the real gap is the difference between originality and imitation," Liang said in an interview with Waves in July last year.
Liang's interviews reveal a belief that China's tech industry had reached a crossroads where it lacked the confidence but not the capital needed to engage in fundamental R&D breakthroughs.
"In the past thirty years, (China's tech industry) has only emphasized making money, and ignored innovation. Innovation is not solely driven by business, it also needs curiosity and a desire to create," he said in July.
DeepSeek has taken the decision to make all its models open-source, unlike its U.S. rival OpenAI. In open-source models, the base code is publicly available for any developer to use and modify at will.
Liang's interviews reveal he has bought into the open-source culture that U.S. tech insiders previously argued was one reason the U.S.'s Silicon Valley held an edge over its Chinese counterparts.
"Even if OpenAI is closed-source, it cannot stop others from catching up...Open-source is like a cultural practice, rather than a business practice...a company that does this will have soft power."
Our species has some serious work to do. Here we are on a very small blue wet rock some 15 billion years old with a paper thin atmosphere and nowhere to go (you’re wrong Elon). Also no one is coming to help us (eat us? maybe.)
So here we are third sphere from our star on the outer outskirts of our galaxy which one of billions of galaxies we know about. So really, we are nothing in this world of ours, no one knows or cares about earth and these humans and their toys.
Yet we invent gods and a self-view that we are the GOAT of the universe. How completely delusional we are.
US vs China vs Russia vs EU? DeepSeek vs OpenAI? Tesla vs BYD? Chiefs vs Eagles? Come on, it doesn’t matter, never will.
What if we could look at ourselves from a wider perspective and cooperate, not compete. All we need to do is work together as a species to make a better life for all of us.
But no, we are like people stranded on an island fighting with each other and competing to the point that our island becomes a version of survivor.
We have such a very short lifespan and we waste our time together on the most trivial of things and waste our blink of an eye on earth.
I was struck when Bezos took Willian Shatner (aka Captain Kirk) into space and he hated it. He was shocked how much he hated space in comparison to the beauty and miracle of earth.
I’m sorry to say it but as a species we generally suck!!
Wow! A very deep take on the DeepSeek melodrama! Hard to argue with your take, Michael. Maybe John and Yoko nailed it all those years ago with “Give Peace a Chance.” Meanwhile , the enlightened Senator (and Yale grad) Josh Hawley has introduced a bill to ban DeepSeek. And the red-baiting House Select Committee on China is raising concerns about performances of China’s National Ballet at the Kennedy Center.
Compelling arguments. I still worry about the point you make in the final sentence above— the animal spirits that spawn both curiosity and desire you stress. As I wrote: “some big political questions remain on China’s ultimate AI potential. That is true from the standpoint of domestic Chinese politics. China’s 2021 regulatory crackdown underscored internal “red lines” both for Internet platform companies and social “bad habits” pertaining to gaming, video streaming, fan culture, and private tutoring. I have argued that this reflected the CCP’s growing discomfort with animal spirits, long a key force underpinning new technologies and innovation. Will AI-enabled innovation challenge these same red lines that seemed so threatening just four years ago?”
Innovation and creativity in the face of scarcity, and in response to need and opportunity, are deeply embedded in Chinese culture. Of interest, here are remarks from DeepSeek’s founder in July, as reported by Reuters.
"China's AI can't be in the position of following forever. We often say that there is a gap of one or two years between China's AI and the United States, but the real gap is the difference between originality and imitation," Liang said in an interview with Waves in July last year.
Liang's interviews reveal a belief that China's tech industry had reached a crossroads where it lacked the confidence but not the capital needed to engage in fundamental R&D breakthroughs.
"In the past thirty years, (China's tech industry) has only emphasized making money, and ignored innovation. Innovation is not solely driven by business, it also needs curiosity and a desire to create," he said in July.
DeepSeek has taken the decision to make all its models open-source, unlike its U.S. rival OpenAI. In open-source models, the base code is publicly available for any developer to use and modify at will.
Liang's interviews reveal he has bought into the open-source culture that U.S. tech insiders previously argued was one reason the U.S.'s Silicon Valley held an edge over its Chinese counterparts.
"Even if OpenAI is closed-source, it cannot stop others from catching up...Open-source is like a cultural practice, rather than a business practice...a company that does this will have soft power."
I would give the Communist Party less credit for leadership and full credit for assisting in the efforts
And more credit to lower level local Communist Party members who saw local opportunities and acted like a local Chamber of Commerce
Like Deng said, “It is good to grow rich”