How the USA Could Beat China in the AI Race (Hint: It Doesn't)

Breaking News in the AI World:

On Tuesday 21st, President Trump publicly announced a $500 billion investment in US-based company OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) and their partners.

Last year (where has this been?), a little-known China-based company called DeepSeek emerged.

Recently with DeepSeek R1, it replicated the results of ChatGPT’s o1 model, even besting it, but with a budget of only $5 million.

Cash-for-performance, China is 100,000x ahead in the AI race!

Rest of the World -- virtually not playing.

Another time.

Blame STEM Education?

The study in the above image shows that China is 4 years ahead of the USA in STEM education.

Some studies suggest Chinese syllables are simpler for numbers, thus the Chinese language has a natural advantage in math.

Meanwhile,

Mathematics serves as the foundational backbone of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), providing the essential tools and frameworks for developing sophisticated algorithms and models

- Source

Lesson to take away:

Pay for your kids’ maths education first. Then you can buy them the latest GPU-powered video games.

A Well-Oiled Social Machine

The secret sauce to the Chinese AI, I suffice, is twofold:

1. Their social scoring system collecting billions of people's data every day, automatically, is a beast that has been feeding and growing bigger for a while (from way back in 2004).

It has had time to master some super LLM skills. Albeit secretly.

In comparison, ChatGPT is a 2-year-old baby. It got savant pretty quickly and we were all excited.

But a 2-year-old has nothing on a 20-year-old.

DeepSeek has only found a way to compress the super useful heuristics from the bigger AI system.

2. Chinese society is a well-oiled social machine partly due to its very strong inner focus on China's growth and prosperity (the US's hand can be found in every major war on this planet. They are very outer focussed).

The other part is the Chinese willingness to push the limits of what is possible in economic development.

Check these headlines.

That's a sample.

The Chinese are more relentless at breaking records in engineering and scientific work than Americans.

So, I wasn't too surprised when they also broke a record in AI.

***

In Africa, we like to laugh at how Chinese products are second-rate.

The Chinese are not afraid of mass-producing cheap knock-offs, as long as they can sell them.

They do this until they produce something original and very good.

We like to laugh.

We never produce anything except a lot of children. Like the Chinese (at least).

The Solution - Play a Different Game Where You Can Win

From the above analysis, the United States of America cannot, in my opinion, have the highest-powered AI system.

Not in the short term.

The Chinese have the cultural will, the population numbers, and the language tailored to math.

What the US has is dollars. $500 billion ++ of them.

USD. Their stronghold. Alas, a value-losing fiat currency that could suffer hyperinflation any decade now.

To survive an AI (dystopian) war with China (for it could devolve into 1984's Oceania vs East Asia), the US should stop competing with China as usual.

The better plan, go in the opposite direction.

Like Haliday said in Ready Player One:

"Why can't we go backwards...for once? Backwards. Really fast, fast as we can. Really put that pedal to the metal, you know?"

Backwards to a pure money standard except in the modern era, it is called Bitcoin.

Buy 5 million bitcoins for the USA with those $500 billion. Beat the Chinese AI game.

Figures:

China's AI (governance) market shows a 37% CAGR to 2030 in revenue.

Bitcoin shows a possible 40% CAGR by 2030. Which will be even more likely with a strong Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.

Bitcoin Is More Common Sensible Than AI

On the surface, more automated machine intelligence = good.

The financial freedom movement = not so good.

AI sense looks like common sense. Like it should be adopted more than Bitcoin.

Though,

I have gone out of my way to champion Bitcoin, I have never done this for AI.

I see Bitcoin advocates on YouTube. I only see people scared of AI on YouTube.

Where are the outspoken and purely optimistic defenders of AI (Except Ray Kurzweil)?

Look for them.

Go ahead.

Check X. Check Facebook.

Nothing.

Where is the united front?

Nowhere.

Elon Musk, like many, vacillates between telling us how AI will create universal high income, then saying we are summoning a demon.

AI camps are split between open-source and closed-source, for-profit and non-profit, government AI or individual-owned or corporate AI.

??

***

With AI,

There is no golden zeal, no fervour, no desire like chasing the girl of your dreams.

AI is genius, tactical, and efficient, but no romantic after-thoughts linger.

AI is so easy to get over. Like a hurried sexcapade in the jungle.

I use it a lot though, so maybe I'm mouthing a sweet lie I want to believe.

If the US instead decides to battle China over AI, well, we're all in for a roller coaster of AI spying and counter-spying.

Results: Inflation galore not only in prices of useful goods and services as the US and China will print a lot of money to fund AI but also scammy AI products.

X's bot problem might break through their wall of defences, and spam verified accounts.

Worse, these two AIs will battle while playing us like pawns.

Our data turned into artillery shells in a perpetual AI war.

Not the best kind of roller-coaster.

I would prefer to ride Bitcoin's NGU to many millions per coin. Once in a while, a good memecoin (oops).

Minimum deep seeking for AI truths, Maximum belief in my self-sovereign keys.

Common sense is simple. Bitcoin is simple, AI is complex.

Bitcoin is about World Unity. This is what we dearly lack.

After world unity, we can seek more intelligence.

Bitcoin Will Align AI, if Bitcoin is put first.

But AI will try to engineer the destruction of Bitcoin in this fiat economy if AI is put first.

AI, by definition, is fiat incarnated inside a machine (fiat means an arbitrary order/command).

AI will be the King of fiat currency gimmicks.

Takes guts though to admit all this.