US Efforts to Contain Xi’s Push for Tech Supremacy Are Faltering
www.bloomberg.com
  • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    40·
    6 days ago

    Even less clear is Chinese advancements in AI — regarded as one of the key determinants of future economic and geopolitical power. While OpenAI, Microsoft Corp. and Google continue to publicize new AI developments and support a thriving startup ecosystem, Chinese companies like Baidu Inc. labor under chip and data-content restrictions, and have yet to show evidence of significant breakthroughs.

    I hope that in my lifetime all of this tech hype will be proven false and I won’t have to read about it anymore. I usually don’t read the whole article this is doing some serious damage to me. The least they could do is name specifically how this “AI” technology has influenced “future economic and geopolitical power” beyond supporting…startup ecosystems??? Oops, all signifiers!! columbo-donk

    • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      30·
      6 days ago

      “AI” is another monopoly moonshot. Its main promise for capital, aside from being an excuse for layoffs, is the possibility of becoming the only shp in town when it comes to certain activities.

      One example is the stock imagery industry. People started using “AI” for this immediately, even when it sucks at it. Replacing the need for hundreds of thousands of people to simulate a ton of different situations, you could just synthesize something comparable. But just “automating” this is not the real end goal. It is to become the exclusive monopoly company on stock images, to create a huge war chest of IPs about the topic so that you can charge massive amounts of economic rent. Stock images would soon become more expensive, not less.

      China will be fine so long as this tendency can be resisted internationally. If the above scenario happens, it be another WTO IP fight on slightly different terms.

      Another possibility is that piracy and/or open source nerds prevent those monopolies from ever taking hold because once models are trained, deploying them isn’t actually that resource-intensive. If there is a “good enough” free stock image generator it will make it very difficult for a monopoly to take complete control.

      So these companies are basically betting everything on nobody being able to compete with them, mostly because they have large datasets they won’t share.

      • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        12·
        6 days ago

        thanks! this makes sense. The article ups the stakes and claims there will be some geopolitical implications from AI in the future but I suppose when pressed they’d say the far, far future.

        I suppose in the stock image example the biggest market suffering would be advertising?

        • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          9·
          6 days ago

          Yeah basic advertising. Getty already has a monopolistic position in that industry, tech is looking to “disrupt” it, which is just how they do this finance-backed monopoly creation thing in other industries. Uber is a financial “disruptor” of a taxi monopoly premised on becoming its own monopoly. They have jacked up prices now that it is clearly just them and Lyft. Same story for AirBnB. Nothing was really improved and in fact it cut into wages and ended up making service more expensive once the finance-backed underpricing (to establish a monopoly) ended.

          • spectre [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            10·
            6 days ago

            They have jacked up prices now that it is clearly just them and Lyft. Same story for AirBnB.

            Thing is that cabs are now competitive again. Took one from the airport last time cause like 6 of them were lined up while the Uber was a 15 minute drive away. the ride was the same cost. They’re losing at their own game cause they bought their own bs.

            Similar for Airbnb. They extracted so much profit that is just more convenient to get a hotel that’s “professionally run” to some extent for the same price.

            • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
              4·
              6 days ago

              That’s very much true. The attempt to get a monopoly isn’t guaranteed to work. But it is what they are all searching for. They call it things like maximizing marketshare over profitability.

  • TychoQuad@lemm.eeEnglish
    24·
    6 days ago

    The one advantage of the auto industry leaving Australia, is that the government isn’t fighting the influx of EVs from China to protect the local industry like the US and Europe is.

    • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      24·
      6 days ago

      I think the MG4 is the first sub-$20k USD proper EV in Australia. Thanks Catholic conservative nut Abbott for signing a free trade agreement with China I guess

      • TychoQuad@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        6 days ago

        My friend bought an MG4 and it’s fantastic. I bought the ZS EV a couple of years ago and am very happy with it, but I would have gotten the MG4 if it was available at the time

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    6 days ago

    I don’t think the USSR ever had anything close to the level of soft power China currently has. To the point where even NATO residents are wanting their products like TikTok, Wukong, and Genshin Impact.

  • HelltakerHomosexual [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    131·
    6 days ago

    while this is good for falling US power, a new power in capitalist consumer products isnt really a good thing. Of course i dont think that china should stop, the US should be the one to do something to eliminate consumerism if they want change.

    god i miss the soviet union, the cold war would probably have been over already if they were still around

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      71·
      6 days ago

      I miss USSR as well, but we are where we are unfortunately. I do hope China is able to reign in consumerism in the future, but I don’t think that can happen until western capitalism has been seen to fail.