Unpacking US-China “Decoupling” in AI

This is a guest blog from two University of Manchester (UK) doctoral students involved in researching the causal mechanisms linking policy interventions to decoupling outcomes, with implications for innovation ecosystems and global governance. Earlier this year, the release of DeepSeek—an open-source large language model from China—intensified the technological competition between the...

“Indigenous” Web Browsers in India: Who Benefits?

Across all three terms, the Modi government has tried to position India as a global technology hub. The state's strategy involves pursuing self-reliance or “Atma Nirbharta.”  The self-reliance strategy is being taken forward through a two-pronged approach — reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign technologies and nurturing domestic technology providers...

OpenAI’s manifesto: Neo-mercantilism Enters Global AI Governance

It was probably inevitable, given the current world situation. In a filing with the US Office of Science and Technology Policy for the Trump administration’s “AI Action Plan,” OpenAI played the geopolitical card, urging the U.S. government to ban its Chinese competitor. In what is becoming an increasingly tiresome trope,...

DeepSeek Says “Xi Jinping is a Dictator”

In last week’s blog post, The Frontier Illusion: Rethinking DeepSeek’s AI Threat, I discussed Cisco’s safety test on DeepSeek R1, which revealed the model’s inability to filter out socially unacceptable content, including cybercrime, harassment (bullying), chemical and biological weapons, and other illegal activities. During my data collection process last month,...

The Frontier Illusion: Rethinking DeepSeek’s AI Threat

The Frontier Illusion: Rethinking DeepSeek’s AI Threat Following the release of DeepSeek-V3 on December 26, 2024, Western nations, led by the United States, have found themselves caught between astonishment at China's AI advancement and deep concerns over potential threats to privacy, safety, and national security. This tension has sparked a...

DeepSeek Disruption

DeepSeek is being portrayed as a wakeup call, but it seems American policy makers and tech companies are hitting the snooze button. That may not be the right metaphor. They are alarmed, very much so. But instead of waking up, getting out of bed and questioning what they have been...