China and the U.S. implement AI to advance Dictatorship

Dictatorship     Credit: newrepublic

Abandoning U.S. Democracy

With the tech billionaire Elon Musk at his side, Trump has moved rapidly to fire critics, punish critical media, start a trade-war, reward allies and exploit presidential immunity to test the limits of his authority. Many of the administration’s actions have been unconstitutional and illegal. With Congress impotent, only some of the federal courts have slowed them down. Since returning to power Trump has attacked the foundations of democracy not with a chisel but a sledgehammer. On day one he pardoned about 1,500 people who took part in the January 6 2021 insurrection, including those who violently attacked U.S. Capitol police in an effort to overturn Trump’s election defeat. Driven by vengeance, he has dismissed federal prosecutors involved in Trump-related investigations and hinted at a further targeting of thousands of FBI agents who worked on cases related to the January 6 insurrection. Trump’s deregulation of AI safety standards has also sparked concerns among some stakeholders about the ethical implications of AI development. It is clear now that Musk and Trump are going to fund entities, states and congressional districts that support them and that they will withhold funds from those that  try to oppose their actions.

Trump’s Drive for AI Leadership

A few days ago, President Trump announced a US$500 billion private sector investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The announcement marks a pivotal moment in the U.S. tech landscape, signalling both a boost to national competitiveness and an opportunity for significant private sector growth. The so-called Stargate initiative, a joint venture involving prominent players such as OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, aims to construct huge data centres across the United States, promising to create over 100,000 jobs and further cement the country’s leadership in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. This action follows Trump’s decision to repeal former President Biden’s AI safety executive order, signalling a shift towards fostering innovation by reducing regulatory constraints on AI development. By promoting an environment conducive to private sector investment, the administration seeks to propel AI as a driving force for economic prosperity in the US. As a key partner in the Stargate project, OpenAI has committed US$25 billion in immediate capital deployment, with plans to invest further in AI infrastructure over the next four years. This substantial investment emphasises the potential for both technological advancement and economic growth. For businesses operating within the AI and technology sectors, the opportunities presented by the Stargate project are immense. The construction of multiple data centres in Texas, each covering half a million square feet, signals a strong demand for new infrastructure capabilities. With AI increasingly requiring massive computing power, the development of these data centres will enable companies to scale their operations, accelerating innovations that are shaping industries from healthcare to energy. For instance, Oracle’s involvement highlights the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, where AI-powered electronic health records could enable doctors across remote regions to access world-class treatment protocols. Similarly, the energy sector could see new advancements in AI-based grid management, improving efficiency in power generation, distribution and storage. With AI becoming an integral part of almost every industry, the creation of this new infrastructure will likely drive both economic growth and job creation, benefiting the broader technology ecosystem.

China’s DeepSeek Strategy

According to Emilio Lapiello in an article written for Medium, Chinese tech companies are not following the massively financed developments in Silicon Valley.  They are charting their own course, and in many ways, they are ahead. Their efficient DeepSeek model raises some intriguing questions that deserve careful consideration. Why would DeepSeek choose this particular moment to release such news, right after OpenAI and the U.S. Government together with other big-tech companies announced their US$ 500 Billion AI development pledge? And perhaps more puzzling: if DeepSeek’s approach is truly groundbreaking and strategic, why release it as open source? Why to hand over one’s technological advantage to one’s competitors? By demonstrating the ability to create high-performing AI models without massive investments, DeepSeek is making a sophisticated statement. They’re not just showcasing technical mastery— they’re challenging the entire approach of AI development. Making it open source adds just another interesting layer of productivity. But there is another interesting point to consider as well. What if this is just the tip of their AI iceberg? No strategic player reveals their best technology without reason. While the West focuses on pouring massive capital into general-purpose AI development, China might have already identified a more sophisticated strategy which they will disclose in the near future.

Two Dictatorships in Control of AI

It would be naïve to believe that the dictatorship as practised by the U.S. and China to control AI would be peaceful and without conflict. If you ask DeepSeek to answer questions about human rights, it becomes obvious that the Chinese government exercises control and acts as censor. If, for example , one asks questions about the working conditions in labour camps of the detained Uyghur population , DeepSeek politely insists on pursuing other interests such as using math for AI development. In the US social Media Platforms and Silicon Valley Venture funds are pushed by the Trump administration to financially support the stargate Project. Any resistance will immediately result in the threat that government funds to their projects will be reduced. The five Big-Tech companies have invested huge amounts of money and human resources, and their shareholders expect a significant return. Especially companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) or Amazon that were critical  about Trump’s election campaign feel the pressure and try to correct  their former behaviour by providing huge funds to Trump’s campaign costs. At the same time, as a result of the DeepSeek shock, ​Nvidia’s share price experienced an unprecedented decline on Monday, January 27, 2025, falling 17% and erasing nearly $600 billion in market value. The dramatic sell-off was triggered by the announcement of the Chinese start-up DeepSeek, claiming that their AI model achieves similar performance to US models at significantly lower cost. Meanwhile Nvidia’s stock price has partially recovered but the situation remains quite fragile. Favourable market reactions to Trump’s steady flow of executive orders have so far helped to stabilize the situation.

Dictatorships use Fear to Suppress Creativity

Dictatorship’s use of fear stifles creativity as a prerequisite for innovation. Experiencing fear when there is no real present danger is suffocating. History shows that without creativity, dictatorships will lack the ability to advance innovation sustainably. According to Wikipedia, creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible such as an idea, a scientific theory or a physical object such as a robot or a smartphone with face recognition. The potential relationship between creativity and intelligence has been of interest since the late 1900s, when a multitude of influential studies focused not only on creativity, but also on intelligence. The researchers Sternberg and O’Hara proposed a framework of possible relationships between creativity and intelligence stating that they are overlapping constructs. Another well-known contribution to the issues of creativity was originally published in 1983 by Teresa Amabile, Professor at Harvard Business School. Articulating a ‘Componential theory of Creativity’, her work was designed to be comprehensively useful for both psychological and organizational creativity research. Two important assumptions underlie her theory. First, there is a continuum from low, ordinary levels of creativity found in everyday life to the highest levels of creativity found in historically significant inventions and scientific discoveries. The second related underlying assumption states that humans only explore a very small number of subspaces within the space of all possible theories of creativity. Using AI for generating theories of creativity raises interesting practical and theoretical questions. Will the generated theories be understandable to humans, or will they only be black boxes providing computational outputs based on accumulated data with machine generated values?

Conclusion

Throughout history, one can observe examples of dictators who came to power with some genuine intention to lead the nation to a better future and then morphed, over time, into a ruthless tyrant, willing to do anything to remain in power. In contrast, democracies as practised in many European countries, stand a significant chance to overcome the restrictions of dictatorships, capturing the opportunity to advance creativity and innovation sustainably. After four years of Trumpism, it seems possible that the U.S. goes back into correction mode, reestablishing its democratic structure and leadership.