this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Before sanctions, Huawei was the world's largest telecom equipment vendor.

After sanctions, Huawei is still the largest except they barely have any US chips in their products.

The CHIPS act has always been incredibly questionable. It seemingly goes against market forces. The US are alienating what were potentially the largest customers for all the chips they plan on making. Customers are especially scarce at the higher end processes that the US are targeting.

Global Foundries abandoned 7nm since they believed that most of their clients wouldn't be able to afford migrating to leading edge nodes. UMC barely had any clients for their 14nm process. Not even Global Foundries' contractual obligations to AMD / IBM, UMC's connection to Mediatek, and access to the latest ASML EUV machines were enough incentive for them to transition to 7nm and beyond.

The US essentially made Huawei a guaranteed customer to SMIC. EUV isn't even necessary for 7nm and 7nm isn't necessary for 5G. Intel 7 and TSMC N7, N7P are made with DUV. TSMC's 12nm was used for UNISOC's Makalu 5G modem and one of their 5G SOCs. The delay in making 5G phones might just be Huawei needing EDA tools to design a modem using SMIC's existing processes.

The way the sanctions are so gradual it's almost as if the US wants China's chip sector to undergo import substitution industrialization. It really resembles the slow ramp up of import restrictions that established the automobile industry in many countries. It's also kind of amusing that in practice it's the US that are cutting themselves off from advanced tech while China can still by the latest chips. Nvidia made the A800, and H800 just for China.. Nvidia probably lobbied to make the restriction easy to implement and based on the specification that affects performance the least.

US bans Huawei so there stuck with 4.5G marketed at 5G.

US bans DJI drones in government so they use terrible Skydio drones for search and rescue.

I'm still undecided if the hype for the 5G AI driven "Fourth Industrial Revolution" is warranted though.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m still undecided if the hype for the 5G AI driven “Fourth Industrial Revolution” is warranted though.

Fuck no it isn't. It's a useful tool, but it's not anywhere near the level of being able to truly change the world like electricity (or any other equivalently huge invention) imo. Biggest problem is how good visual and audio faking has gotten, we already have a big problem with people falling for facebook minion memes, seeing videos of government officials say they eat babies is going to break people's brains to a never before seen degree

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh well, at least the hype is distracting the US from attacking the more productive sectors China's economy. US government officials really seem fixated on whatever the current tech buzzword is.

Honestly, the self-driving car hype train from a decade ago made me a bit skeptical about the newest AI wave. In spite of the absolutely massive gains Nvidia's machine learning chips have made, Full Self-Driving is perpetually coming next year according to Tesla.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

And the sad thing is that the self-driving vision is mostly about "how do we automate away an already precarious group of taxi/rideshare/lorry drivers."

Notice there's little discussion about automation as an efficiency tool (networking to smooth traffic flow, automatically draft for efficiency, schedule fleet vehicles for maximum utilization) Probably because trains already do it all better.

It's all either economic titans trying to own the space so they can invent dodgy new business models, or wrapping it for consumers as the same old self-indulgent car pap, almighty individual in his overpowered FreedomPod(tm) but now he can play Candy Crush instead of watching for pedestrians.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

and honestly no matter how good you make self driving cars, they will always be inferior to trains, which China has plenty of! (although even they are still too carbrained, some of their highways are actual abominations deng stare

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I kind of wonder, if “Buy America” wasn't a requirement and the US allowed China to bid for High Speed Rail contracts would the US already have decent HSR network by now?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

No, the automobile lobby is too strong here. The US used to have an extremely strong railway network before the automobile industrialists destroyed it, and they won’t be letting their cashcow go that easily

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

seeing videos of government officials say they eat babies is going to break people’s brains to a never before seen degree

And I'm pretty sure the problem is going to be tackled in China while having disastrous effects in the West and all they're gonna say is "ChyNa indErnEt cenSrorShip otoRitarIan"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I'm not even sure China will have to do that much, people there already actually trust the government and its institutions generally, at least much more than Amerikkkans or Europeans do,

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Considering western Gamers called China fascist for solving gaming addiction, you're not wrong. The spiritual opium is strong

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Commitment to efficiency is at the heart of communism. Here's why I love China, taken from the article.

The United States and China approach AI differently. The trillion-dollar valuations of the great American technology companies mainly come from consumer entertainment. China, as Huawei’s Zhang said, has no time for poetry. Rather than guess when the machines will become sentient or when AI will replace human beings, China has focused on the automation of drudge work: inspecting parts on a factory conveyor belt, checking the bins near the coal face for foreign objects, detecting anomalies in machines, picking containers out of ships and placing them on autonomous trucks, and so forth.

My dream would be to live in China, it has such a different culture from the west. While I know I'll never live there, visiting the country someday would be lovely.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My dream of living in China is probably a pipe dream, but I'm never giving up hope. I'd love to talk shop with you if you are up for it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly, I don't know what you mean but you can talk to me about anything.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's your favorite vegetable

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know you're making fun of me, but I'll answer. It’s either carrots or broccoli. I really like both.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

both of those are absolute legends of vegetables. not a bad choice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They are classics. Also goes perfect with a hummus dip.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Watching chinese youtube channels about rural life makes me envious ngl. Chins rural villages seem so idyllic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Living in any of China's big cities would be more appealing to me. The rural villages look nice, too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Seeing china construct the first automated port in tianjin really surprised me as a westerner, you'll and I'll never see these type of innovation in the west. AI's and robots will be used for some cool and 'narly' way instead of actually being useful. And thing is that I'm glad this is the case, as capitalist countries would put that type of innovation as union-busting or maybe even re-vitalising industry, yet the sheer corruption and incompetence of these CEOs and industry gurus make it so even the most recent 'innovation' breakthroughs are either 'meh' or some broken down, watered product that'll never be useful.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The national interest “is guided by the belief that nothing will enhance those interests as effectively as the approach to foreign affairs commonly known as realism—a school of thought traditionally associated with such thinkers and statesmen as Disraeli, Bismarck, and Henry Kissinger. “ - from their about page

Anyone who idolizes fucking Bismarck and Kissinger is off their rocker. I wouldn’t trust anything from this rag more than I would toilet paper

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh for sure, this is a nonsensical, blindly patriotic American rag, that like you said, isn't even worth using as toilet paper.

But if something as pro-American and pro-imperialism as this rot is realising that the US can't actually compete, it's a pretty clear sign the US is in major trouble.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For some reason I feel like this is more about promoting tech sanctions than it is actually about any tech deficit

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Most likely.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

It's written by David P. Goldman, an Asia Times writer whose views run counter to the mainstream US media China narrative.

The National Interest putting one of his pieces on the front page seems really uncharacteristic of them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Way to avoid engaging with the actual points the article makes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Any technological innovation that isn’t furthering a post scarcity society where basic needs are met without expectation of payment is just more tech noise and not substantive progress. Ai taxis and more expansive telecoms and more automated menial labor just sounds like more money into an entrenched politikers or corporats pockets. America has plenty of that as well

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Adding to this: I’m tired of having centralized systems of manufacturing, we should be focusing on localized ai models empowering 3d printers and textile machines at a local scale. Break of manufacturing monopolies, stop shipping goods half way across the world. In home batteries and solar, wind to decentralize power grids Telecoms powered by a grid of satellites (put up by corporations or governments, somethings you need to compromise on) but connected to with antenna systems that could be open sourced and setup by households

More of that please less of this owner class decimating hiring head count

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

To whatever extent you can do that go ahead. However all of those methods would be less exploitative and therefore less profitable than the terrible exploititive methods we keep on doing.

This video elaborates on that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gSzzuY1Yw0

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean it's really just because they have more slave-wage labor.

If we want independence from their manufacturing, we'll have to make equally unethical deals with other countries and build more expensive manufacturing here.

It will simply cost money.