Quick Summary
Additional Context
The nature of the AI boom seems no clearer despite its persistence, yet it persists. For one thing, as I’ve discussed before, people really seem to dislike data centers. American tech companies (and the US president) blame this state of affairs on Chinese propaganda, but it seems more closely related to the fact that the ongoing wave of data center investment has depleted resources intended for the general public and raised the price of the average consumer’s utility bills. Thus, Chinese propaganda is likely a factor, but that doesn’t mean tech giants didn’t give that propaganda an opening!
Another, more recent, thing is that the US AI wunderkinds have been calling for a “slowdown”, which Chinese companies have called a Cold War tactic, and this kind of ambiguity doesn’t help anyone who i