The Trump family got a $2 billion deposit into their crypto company, the United Arab Emirates got a huge amount of restricted AI chips despite security concerns. Our story about how how business is being done, and influence gained, in the second Trump administration. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

“Oil-producing countries have had an oversized influence on international affairs; in an A.I.-powered near future, compute producers could have something similar since they control access to a critical resource,” Prof Vili Lehdonvirta told @paulmozur.bsky.social, @nytimes.com.

A new A.I. divide is forming. As the biggest companies and richest countries scramble for GPUs, much of the world is being left behind. It's a new type of inequality that will go a long way to determining development in the coming years. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

What was striking in reporting this story was how much Geo's surveillance app reminded me of apps I've seen used in China and other authoritarian countries. The context is different in a democracy, but it raises big questions about the humane use of surveillance. www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/w...

It also gives Geo Group a surprisingly complete hold over immigration in the U.S. One subject we followed was added to Geo's surveillance when he entered, was arrested at a Geo office by ICE when summoned, and now sits at a Geo facility awaiting deportation. The company makes money on each step.

For Geo Group, the surveillance is a major profit center. Its margins on the service are about 50%. For an immigrant to send a checkin selfie, it charges the US government $1.00. Sources said managers pressure Geo employees to rush thru immigrant oversight procedures. It was all about numbers.

The US' largest private prison operator, Geo Group, also runs one of its largest immigrant surveillance programs. Now, ICE is using the privately run system to track and deport growing numbers of people. 200k are currently in the system. Geo expects it to grow. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/t...

Good piece in China Talk @jordanschneider.bsky.social I’ve been trying to hit these points in our recent DeepSeek stories. Its approach is very against the grain for China tech. Completely opposed to the grueling hours/top-down ethic that typify big tech in China www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseeks-...

If confirmed as a commercial airliner in the Potomac, this mid-air collision at DCA would be the worst U.S. air disaster since the Colgan Air Q400 crash near Buffalo in 2009.

A short explainer on Liang Wenfeng. It is amazing how much he does NOT sound like a Chinese tech boss. In the context of China's grueling tech work environment he sounds downright hippyish: "Everyone has their own unique journey and brings their own ideas with them, so there’s no need to push them."

the first fatal commercial plane crash in 16 years happened just days after Trump froze hiring of air traffic controllers that were already stretched thin

Liang Wenfeng has said the U.S. chip restrictions are nonetheless a problem, so I don't really buy that this undermines the use of the chip blocks. Nor does it justify China's private sector crackdowns. It does show Liang is very good at being creative when faced with obstacles.

One of the interesting things about DeepSeek is that two creative constrictions created its advances. One is obviously U.S. chip restrictions. But the second was China's crackdown on speculative trading, which drove the company to put money into pure A.I. research. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/b...

Nice profile showing how DeepSeek is an exception in China’s AI ecosystem. Yesterday, I wrote a similar piece on my substack, also highlighting how the company is an outlier in rather than a representation of the “China model” - you can read it here:

highvalueadded.substack.com/p/deepseek-p...

A big question is what happens now that they have so much Chinese government attention. DeepSeek is part of a long tradition of outsiders shaking up plans for innovation. Sometimes it can be harder to manage the government support and interference that comes after. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/b...

Founder Liang Wenfeng upended pricing in Chinese A.I. earlier this year. Yet in interviews he dismisses the commercial benefits, pointing to artificial general intelligence as the primary goal, and anything short of that a distraction.

When Chinese technologists discussed why the country missed generative AI, part of the logic was a cutthroat market overly focused on returns. Few were set up to aid companies focused on big cuts at hard problems. Funded by its hedge fund, DeepSeek is very much focused on pure research.

Our profile of DeepSeek. There have been tons of hot takes, but it's valuable to understand the company's story. In many ways it's the exception to the AI ecosystem in China at the moment. While others chased quick returns, DeepSeek set its sites on real disruption. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/b...

greatest city in the world

For anyone wanting to know more about Xinjiang/the Uyghur region I have made a starter pack of campaigners, academics and journalists who research and write about the region. It's still very incomplete - I'd be grateful for more suggestions!
go.bsky.app/PWzGYxx

For years the U.S. has struggled to convince countries to shun Huawei and other China tech. Now it believes it has a way to do it, offer Nvidia chips in exchange. That's the basis of a new A.I. diplomacy emerging as a last gasp policy from the Biden Admin. Nvidia, caught in the middle, is not happy.

Probably not many remember Chinese chip investor Canyon Bridge, but it made waves with a bid for Lattice Semiconductor 7 years ago. The US blocked the deal. So Canyon Bridge bought UK based Imagination. US seems to have been justified. Knowledge transfer programs sent key IP to China AI chip firms.