The Generalist

The Semiconductor Century with Chris Miller (Author of “Chip War”)

58 snips
May 27, 2025
Guest
Chris Miller
Join Chris Miller, a professor at the Fletcher School and author of the bestseller Chip War, as he delves into the geopolitics of semiconductors. Explore why China's AI talent remains crucial despite setbacks and how Huawei is evolving into an AI contender. Discover the implications of U.S. policies on the tech race and the significance of India's role in chip manufacturing. Miller highlights that technology's true impact often hinges on its diffusion rather than just capabilities, leaving us pondering the future of AI in a global landscape.
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INSIGHT

Diffusion Drives AI Impact

  • The true impact of AI depends on how rapidly its capabilities diffuse and get adopted, not just on improvements in the models themselves.
  • Metrics like subscriber counts or enterprise adoption are better indicators of AI's social and economic effects than raw technical benchmarks.
INSIGHT

DeepSeek Reveals AI Talent Diffusion

  • China's DeepSeek shows that China's AI talent is extraordinary and algorithm designs are easily copied.
  • Algorithmic research is mostly published openly, enabling rapid diffusion of AI efficiency improvements.
INSIGHT

Distribution Over Raw Quality

  • In software, success often depends less on quality and more on distribution advantages and network effects.
  • For AI businesses, customer relationships, bundling, and minimizing costly hallucinations matter more than leading performance metrics.
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