People talk a lot about AI and the huge impact that it is going to have on all of our lives, and this week has suddenly seen one possible way in which that happens. The key word is OpenClaw, which is an AI agent which can control and coordinate all your apps, data, calendars, emails and social media accounts and… everything… and execute a wide range of instructions on your behalf automatically using all these data and apps. And inevitably bank accounts and investments too. Obviously, this all promises an enormous saving of time and also obviously presents enormous risks. The indications are that OpenClaw is being embraced particularly enthusiastically in China, and this has all sorts of implications, for Chinese society, for potential scammers, and for the system itself.
AI is a huge priority for organizations, governments and companies around the world, and huge numbers of people too. But China systemically is probably placing more emphasis on AI development than any other country, including the United States. This is a reflection of the hierarchical nature of China but also probably reflects the presumed concerns of the system with regard to AI. There are indications, certainly in terms of DeepSeek, that the China-based LLMs are filtered and constrained in certain ways that is not true of systems elsewhere. That is presumably because the system has a view and a concern about the potential impact that AI could have on the system and its future. If OpenClaw or something like it looks like it is going to become widespread, then we can expect measures to be implemented to make sure they operate firmly within the purview of the system. But then LLMs can be downloaded and operated offline…. We really are heading into totally uncharted territory in terms of so many things right now, AI and the Middle East being just two of the most obvious examples.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world we have the Iran war, and all the disruption that is causing. Is the Trumpist US going to have to “occupy” the Strait of Hormuz as part of this? Who knows? A US$500 drone can incapacitate military hardware worth billions. One hopefully not significant consequence of all this is that the United States is reassigning THAAD interceptor systems from South Korea to the Middle East, and according to one estimate, the number of Patriot missiles fired by US forces in the last two weeks exceed the number provided to Ukraine in the past four years, and it could be later next year before stockpiles can be fully replenished. Does this have any implications for the island? The US being this distracted could be a factor in some calculations.
Have a great spring-filled weekend.