The west is already losing the AI arms race | Larry Elliott

andOr once, Donald Trump was not guilty of excessive. The Chinese Chatbot budget arrival is called Deepseek to the Chatgpt competitor is really Waking up calling. It is an invitation to wake up to American technology giants. It is an invitation to wake up to Wall Street. It is an invitation to wake up to any advanced country keen to enter the artificial intelligence race.
All this is true even if it turns out that Deepseek is not all that is cracking. If this is the real deal, the Chinese have created a high -quality AI product available freely at a small cost. This is a good thing. In 1957, the United States surprised when the Soviet Union became the first country to launch an artificial satellite. I was surprised at the arrival of Dembsic. Really, this will be the moment of Sputnik.
Certainly there is Those who ask Whether a Chinese startup can succeed in achieving what American technology companies forced to spend billions of dollars on them. Their doubts may prove that it is correct, but this does not affect the largest image: China’s threat to Western technological dominance is real. The rush to win the artificial intelligence race will be competitive – and perhaps more than that – from the space race in the fifties and sixties. China bears greater economic influence than the Soviet Union.
In the first days of its rapid economic development, China It was seen as the place where the United States and European could use external production sources. The Labor Party was cheap and moved abroad with a promise of the highest profits. The idea was that all things really advanced – product design, research and development – will be in the West. It will only be the assembly work that will end in Guangdong. Creativity needed to reach new ideas and new products will be strangled by the Marxist Chinese regime.
This has proven to be satisfied with a vision. In 2023, China Provide more patents From the rest of the world put together. Chinese universities turn on average More than 6000 doctorate degrees In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) per month – more than twice the number in the United States. As Deepseek also appears, China has a growing cadre of very bright people who are able to think outside the box when they are allowed, as was the case with the development of artificial intelligence, lithium -ion batteries and electric cars.
The United States is aware of the threat of its domination, and the determination to reduce the economic power of China is an issue of the two parties in Washington. The definitions were kept on Chinese imports in the United States that Trump imposes in his first term – He added to Written by Joe Biden when he became president. A week before the office left, Biden’s imposition New restrictions Regarding the export of computer chips developed in the United States to prevent countries such as China to reach advanced technology. Biden’s inflation law has provided subsidies to encourage climate friendly products in the United States.
In some sectors, time may have passed. China is already the largest source of electric cars, which leads to a preventive tariff from the United States and the European Union. Li -Ion batteries produced by Chinese factories Cost the seventh For each kilo an hour of what they did 10 years ago. It should not be a surprise to the United States and other western countries that the division of global work, in which they carried out all low -cost active works, had nothing but Chinese attractiveness. Instead, China has made a concerted attempt to maintain the production of shoes, games and television devices as well as to the higher technology sectors.
The strategy may have its restrictions. There is an argument that the economic model of China will eventually become incompatible with its political model, and that the demands of democracy will force the Communist Party to become less repressive. China is also completely free of economic problems. Many of its state -owned companies are confused. The bubble in the real estate market It exploded well and rights.
However, it is clear that the battle for the superiority of artificial intelligence is heading. Trump believes that some competition from China is not bad for the American technology sector, and it is right. Share technical stock values in Wall Street Stumbling After news of Deepseek erupted because it wondered whether the massive investment in American companies is worth it, but low -cost models will cause artificial intelligence to accelerate. While there are clearly risks to this – for privacy, security and jobs – there are also possible benefits.
Care Starmer says he wants to be Britain.AI SuperPower“And achieving this goal must become easier with the low cost of development. But the conversation is cheap. The high -tech sectors in China have not only appeared in a magical way, and it is not a coincidence that it had besieged the market in the budget EVS. Like other East Asian countries before, China was China I looked at a strategic vision of industries that wanted to be a competition, and she invested extensively to prove it and protect it when it was in the cradle, and she waited for the patience of the results. It can be more clear.