Not to mention it'd defeat the whole purpose of a "free market" economy. (Not that that means much of anything anymore)
I don't think all of that is a bad thing (regulation tends to make it harder to do the first two things), but "free markets" are the economic equivalent to the "point mass" in physics: perhaps useful sometimes to create simple models and explanations of things, but will never exist in the real world.
But restricting the trade in micro chips only because the USA is afraid it will loose a technical and commercial edge is a long long way from a free market.
It is too late, too. China has broken out and they are ahead in many fields. Not trading chips with them will make them build their own foundries. In two decades they will be as far ahead there as they are in many other fields.
If the USA would trade then the technological capacities of China and the USA would stay matched, as they help each other. China ahead in some areas, the USA ahead in others.
That would still (probably) not be a pure Free Market but it would be a freer market, and better for everybody except a few elites (on both sides)
Madness is taking root
Every LLM provider in the US will be using it to lower OpEx.
One of them is likely to pass those savings along to consumers to gain market share.
Facebook is in the business of providing weights for free.
The idea that we are all doomed unless we immediately migrate to DeepSeek is fantasy.
The US government has the wherewithal to drag Europe along with it, like they did with Huawei's 5G equipment.
Besides, it's kinda too late for this. The model is freely accessible, so any attempt at banning it would be _completely_ moot. If DeepSeek keeps releasing their future models for free, I don't see how a ban could ever be effective at all. Worse case scenario, big tech can't use those models... but then individuals (and startups willing to go fast and break laws) will be able to use them and instantly get a leg up on the competition.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
Chinese phones, yes. But I'd argue we're past peak China. Huawei phones briefly were the #1 selling in the world, have since pulled back.
