Trump is right that DeepSeek is a wakeup call. For a very long time many on the capitalist side of the argument (including myself) have taken a degree of complacent comfort in the highly derivative nature of Chinese technology. One of out BTL commenters even went so far as to say that reports of a Chinese stealth fighter couldn't possibly be true. Of course, we've long noted the undeniable, gargantuan successes of China's mercantile strategy, but hey, that's how Japan, S.Korea and Taiwan joined the club.
And now, DeepSeek! Assuming it isn't a fake - and I think we may - it represents an all-time classic example of capitalism at its finest: people with strong commercial motivation, creativity, and sufficient political freedom - highly qualified, but sufficient - to give rein to it; and the innovations flow!
And of course in a frontier space like LLMs, random disruptions and breakthroughs are to be expected. We just need to recognise that a western cultural backdrop is not the only fertile context.
So 'wakeup call' is all we need to say. Provided that those who hear it are not just the complacent, comatose denizens of Silicon Valley. Now, what was it about that stealth fighter again?
ND
12 comments:
The Labour benches will be packed with morons complaining that DeepSikh is Islamophobic.
DeepSeek isn't fake but it was created off the back of the existing AI's. Think of it as a distillation of the output of the existing AI's that did all the work scraping the data.
The old AI companies can hardly complain if DeepSeek stole the data that they stole in the first place.
"OpenAI furious that DeepSeek stole the data they stole in the first place"
Things must be getting bad, Radio 4's afternoon play seems to be about a far-right party coming to power in the UK.
OT but interesting, on submarine cables and breaks
https://blog.telegeography.com/what-to-know-about-submarine-cable-breaks
https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
What one MFLGBTQIA+ can do so can another. Easier the second time around, you know it's possible and you brought along the KY.
Technologists given enough shiny new kit and a free hand don't care much about the politics of those doing the funding, the finding out is the motivation. Remember Teller and Ulam and von Braun.
Also remember that mother Nature is apolitical, those who are intelligent and ask the right questions are rewarded - provided they can afford the time and the money to put the right and wrong answers to the test.
Some might be interested in goings on at ExxonMobile and alleged hacking of climate activist's phones. And the US seems to be asking the UK to assist extraditing an Israeli PI. Someone may have broken the 11th commandment. See Bruce Schneier - schneier.com
Thanks, Jim - but I fear none of us will be surprised.
I know of (but cannot write about) another such case where a Big Bad Corporate (energy) with much to hide is expending much time, money and sometimes illicit effort persecuting an individual they feel could damage their business. One person against the behemoth. From the effort they are expending, you know they must be guilty as charged.
The runways are rotting in the fields !!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/02/can-we-build-it-no-because-britain-may-not-have-enough-workers
Obviously the two million Boris and Rishi imported were the wrong type.
Semi-OT but I saw a car advert (while trying to get to BBC for the rugby) where there was small print below the ad saying that parts of some scenes, and some people, were actually AI. It was the usual tosh of young glamorous people zooming round a miraculously traffic free European capital.
This could kill acting, as you'll save a fortune on actors, but will it kill OnlyFans? There's The Uncanny Valley, but if they can solve that the Manic Pixie AI Girl could lower Western fertility even more.
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