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Today's Topics:
1. Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong (Stephen Loosley)
2. Chinese tech giants race to expand AI services market with
latest open-standard protocol MCP (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:31:01 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong
The tech right?s collapsing case for the Trump presidency.?
by Eric Levitz Apr 18, 2025
https://www.vox.com/technology/409256/trump-tariffs-student-visas-andreessen-horowitz
[Eric Levitz is a senior correspondent at Vox. He covers a wide range of
political and policy issues with a special focus on questions that internally
divide the American left and right. Before coming to Vox in 2024, he wrote a
column on politics and economics for New York Magazine.]
Last year, a coterie of tech billionaires rallied behind Donald Trump?s
candidacy. Many had not been lifelong Republicans. In 2016, the venture
capitalist Marc Andreessen declared Hillary Clinton the ?obvious choice? for
president, saying Trump?s immigration agenda ?makes me sick to my stomach.?
Elon Musk, meanwhile, had once been an Obama-supporting climate hawk. Yet they,
and many others in their circles, found their way to supporting an openly
authoritarian insurrectionist in 2024.
They offered many explanations for this decision, some of which were
unabashedly self-interested ? Trump had promised to limit regulatory scrutiny
of their companies and taxation of their capital. But right-wing tech moguls
generally insisted that their fundamental concern was for the country, not
their profits: Trump?s pro-business policies would accelerate economic growth
and technological progress ? thereby ensuring America?s prosperity and global
supremacy.
Three months into his presidency, Trump has delivered on many of the so-called
tech right?s requests for regulatory relief.
Yet, to the extent that their faction genuinely cares about maximizing American
economic growth, technological progress, and global standing, their investment
in Trump has been an utter disaster.
It isn?t hard to see why right-wing tech moguls believed Trump?s election would
advance their interests. To some in their circles, the Democratic Party had
become a financial threat. Many venture capitalists were heavily invested in
the crypto industry, which the Biden White House regarded as ?rife with bad
actors.? The Democratic administration therefore discouraged banks from serving
many crypto businesses and prosecuted some of its moguls for money laundering.
What?s more, Joe Biden chilled mergers through vigorous antitrust enforcement,
proposed new regulations on AI development, and suggested taxing unrealized
capital gains. All this was antithetical to many tech billionaires? material
interests. And this financial injury was compounded by cultural insults. In the
tech right?s view, the ?woke? left seemed to disdain success in general and
successful white males in particular. And social justice ideology didn?t just
irritate the Silicon Valley superrich online; it increasingly fomented
insubordination within their workplaces.
Donald Trump credibly promised to advance the tech right?s interests along all
these fronts.
But some Silicon Valley moguls weren?t content to rest their case for Trumpism
on grounds of narrow self-interest or cultural grievance. Rather, Andreessen
and his fellow VC Ben Horowitz insisted Trump?s election was necessary for
safeguarding nothing less than ?the future of America.?
In their account, the United States was suffering from a crisis of low economic
growth and stagnating productivity. Unwise government policies were not merely
stymying crypto?s profitability but American innovation writ large. And this
posed a threat to liberty both within America?s borders and beyond them.
After all, ?Low economic growth also means the rise of smashmouth zero-sum
politics? in which people come to believe that ?gains for one group of people
necessarily require taking things away from other people,? Andreessen and
Horowitz wrote in a pre-election manifesto. More critically, the United States
would not be able to maintain geopolitical supremacy without retaining economic
and technological preeminence. And if America did not reign supreme, the
Chinese Communist Party would be able to impose its ?much darker, more
totalitarian? view of global governance upon the world.
Trump understood how important it was for the US to ?win? in its
techno-scientific race against the CCP, according to Andreessen and Horowitz.
His election would, therefore, accelerate American economic growth and
technological progress while enhancing US power on the global stage.
Thus far, Trump has delivered many of the tech right?s narrow demands. Crypto
and AI startups face little regulatory scrutiny or pressure to implement DEI
programming.
But Trump has simultaneously sabotaged America?s economic growth, scientific
prowess, and geopolitical influence.
The president?s decision to put across-the-board tariffs on virtually all
foreign imports ? and 145 percent duties on Chinese ones ? has already cost
many tech investors and founders dearly. Startups reliant on Chinese inputs
have found themselves abruptly on the brink of insolvency. Other firms have
been forced to cancel their IPOs amid bearish investor sentiment.
The tech right hoped Trump?s election would clear the way for a wave of
mergers, enabling venture-funded startups to cash out by selling their
businesses to Big Tech firms. Yet his tariffs have eroded the value of major US
tech companies, sapping their interest and capacity to buy out startups (while
his administration?s approach to antitrust enforcement has proven more
adversarial than anticipated).
But Trump?s trade war has been even more damaging to the tech right?s
high-minded goals than to its narrow pecuniary ones. Bitcoin is still more
valuable today than it was before November?s election. The same cannot be said
of the S&P 500, which more closely tracks American economic performance.
Trump?s tariffs have not accelerated US economic growth. Rather, they have
likely ground it to a halt. The Atlanta Fed?s economic growth tracker currently
predicts that GDP will contract by 2.2 percent this quarter. Many analysts
believe the US economy is already in recession.
Perversely, Trump?s trade policies have been especially harmful to American
manufacturers, who are more vulnerable to surging input costs than many other
businesses. New orders from manufacturers in New York state hit the lowest
level on record this month, according to Federal Reserve data. Service-sector
businesses have also drastically scaled back capital investment plans in the
face of rising costs.
Trump?s culpability for this downturn is unambiguous. It is his trade war that
is depressing consumer confidence and deterring business investment by driving
up costs and increasing economic uncertainty.
Needless to say, if a politician unilaterally orchestrates a recession through
trade policies he can?t coherently explain, it is difficult to say that his
election was vital for economic growth.
But what makes Trump?s tariffs truly antithetical to Andreessen and Horowitz?s
purported goals is that they are jeopardizing America?s long-term economic
performance and geopolitical stature.
One source of American economic might is the dollar?s status as the world?s
reserve currency. And Trump?s erratic and belligerent trade policies have
shaken global faith in the dollar?s safety. Normally, in times of financial
volatility, demand for US dollars and Treasury bonds spikes, as investors seek
the security of our currency and debt. But during today?s crisis, the dollar?s
value has fallen, while yields on US Treasurys have surged.
Many financial analysts believe this could be the beginning of a shift away
from the dollar, as global investors rethink the reliability of America?s
economic and political institutions. If that proves right, America?s borrowing
costs would durably increase while its consumers? purchasing power would
lastingly fall, trends that would undermine the nation?s long-term growth.
Meanwhile, it is hard to see how anyone preoccupied with enhancing American
global power ? particularly, relative to China ? could be pleased with Trump?s
first three months. By violating the terms of America?s existing trade
agreements ? including some he personally negotiated ? Trump undermined our
nation?s diplomatic credibility. And by imposing across-the-board tariffs on
core US allies, he led European and Asian powers to consider the possibility
that China is the more stable and reliable global superpower.
In recent days, the Trump administration sought to rally America?s allies into
a united front against Chinese trade abuses. But it is struggling to mount such
an alliance, according to the Wall Street Journal, because ?many European and
Asian partners aren?t sure to what extent they are still allied with
Washington.? Rather than becoming more adversarial to Beijing, some in the EU
are calling for the bloc to end its cooperation with American efforts to starve
China of cutting-edge technology.
Trump?s assault on American economic performance and technological progress
extends beyond the realm of trade policy. His haphazard cuts to federal funding
for both government agencies and private research have been similarly
devastating.
In their manifesto last year, Andreessen and Horowitz attributed ?American
technology leadership? partly to ?our higher education system, and long-term
government investment in scientific research.?
Yet the Trump administration has sought to choke off funding to these sources
of innovation. Since taking office, it has canceled or frozen billions of
dollars in federal science funding and choked off further funds to top research
universities, such as Harvard.
Economists widely believe this general austerity will slow technological
progress and economic growth. Research has estimated that every dollar invested
in scientific research and development yields $5 in economic gains.
What?s worse, the Trump administration has specifically targeted some of the
most promising lines of medical research. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are
among the greatest medical breakthroughs of the past decade. They promise to
limit the toll of future pandemics and advance treatments for some of the
world?s worst diseases. One recent study suggested an mRNA-based therapy
inhibited the recurrence of pancreatic cancer in some patients.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has discouraged universities from
seeking grants for mRNA research, announcing all such grants would be reported
to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ? a staunch critic of mRNA technology
? for review.
Trump?s spending cuts have undermined economic progress on other fronts. For
example, the administration has proposed $20 billion in cuts to the Department
of Energy?s Loan Programs Office (LPO), which provides long-term capital to
domestic energy projects that advance America?s strategic interests. Its
lending has successfully promoted nuclear energy (one of Andreessen?s avowed
causes), mineral mining, and gas infrastructure.
Even before Trump, it was already leanly staffed. According to Thomas Hochman
of the Foundation for American Innovation, most asset management firms employ
roughly 500 employees for every $100 billion in managed assets; LPO has
employed closer to 350. In a letter to the administration, 30 think tanks and
energy companies suggested that large cuts to LPO?s funding could undermine
American energy production.
Meanwhile, Trump?s layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are
slowing drug development. With the FDA too short-staffed to fulfill its core
functions in a timely manner, companies have been forced to postpone clinical
trials and drug testing for new medical treatments.
Finally, the Trump administration is jeopardizing America?s access to the most
fundamental economic resource: skilled labor.
Among the list of pro-growth policies that Andreessen and Horowitz endorsed in
their ?Little Tech Agenda? last year was an ?Expansion of high-skilled
immigration to encourage foreign graduates of American universities and others
to build new companies and industries here.?
But Trump has done the very opposite, exiling foreign students and recent
graduates from the United States, thereby discouraging others from immigrating
to the country.
Specifically, his administration has taken to abruptly terminating foreign
students? visas and ordering them to leave the country. According to a database
from Inside Higher Ed, the State Department has changed the legal status of
more than 1,000 students and recent graduates at over 170 colleges and
universities. In some of these cases, no clear rationale for the visa
revocation has been articulated. In many, the cause seems to be the most minor
legal infractions, such as receiving a speeding ticket.
The White House has also seemingly empowered immigration officials to menace
legal immigrants, including esteemed scientists. Kseniia Petrova graduated from
a renowned Russian physics and technology institute before being recruited by
Harvard Medical School. When Trump took office, she had been working on an
investigation into slowing cellular damage from aging. But in February, she was
detained at Boston Logan International Airport for failing to declare frog
embryos she had transported from France at her university?s request. Normally,
this would incur a small fine. Instead, the customs official terminated her
visa on the spot and initiated deportation proceedings. Now, she is stuck in a
detention center in Louisiana.
All this has sent a very clear message to talented, foreign-born scientists
both in the US and abroad. A recent poll by the journal Nature found that 75
percent of US-based scientists say they are considering leaving the country. In
response, European countries have been aggressively seeking to lure top
scholars out of the United States.
There is no high-minded case for Trump
There are other ways the Trump administration has subverted the tech right?s
ostensible ideals. In a post-election podcast, Andreessen and Horowitz
complained that, even as the Biden administration had allegedly cracked down on
legitimate crypto businesses, it did nothing to combat ?all the crazy,
fly-by-night meme coins?; Trump proceeded to launch a shady meme coin of his
very own.
Andreessen also complained that the Biden administration had undermined the
rule of law, pressuring businesses into agreements that ?you voluntarily agree
to it but in an atmosphere of coercion.? This would seem like a fitting
description of the Trump White House withholding funds and federal contracts
from universities and law firms until those entities agreed to implement the
administration?s ideological priorities or provide it with pro bono legal
assistance.
But it seems unlikely the tech right was ever under the misimpression that
Donald Trump had a deep-seated commitment to ethical business practices or
lawful government. They were all sentient on January 6, 2021. It is more
plausible though that reactionary tech billionaires genuinely believed the
Republican would accelerate economic growth and tech progress through tax cuts
and deregulation ? this is, after all, what global investors seemed to believe
in the immediate wake of Trump?s election, if stock market trends are any guide.
But Trump has swiftly invalidated the tech right?s high-minded reasons for
supporting him. What remains is the grubby, self-interested argument that the
crypto industry?s short-term profits matter more than America?s long-term
economic health or geopolitical influence. This seems to be a difficult case to
make. As Politico has observed, Andreessen?s X feed grew quiet in the wake of
?Liberation Day? after he served as one of Trump?s loudest tech evangelists on
social media for months. As of this writing, the mogul has not published a post
on the platform in over a week.
--
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:33:17 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Chinese tech giants race to expand AI services market
with latest open-standard protocol MCP
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Chinese tech giants race to expand AI services market with latest open-standard
protocol
China is seeing growing adoption of the model context protocol (MCP) which
has become a de facto standard for AI integration
By Ben Jiangin Beijing Published: 8:30pm, 21 Apr 2025
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3307333/chinese-tech-giants-race-expand-ai-services-market-latest-open-standard-protocol
Major Chinese technology companies are racing to launch services based on the
open model context protocol (MCP), which enables Manus-like artificial
intelligence (AI) agents to connect with thi d-party online tools, data sources
and systems ? a trend that could expand the commercial adoption of such
applications.
Alipay operator Ant Group ? the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding,
owner of the South China Morning Post ? last week unveiled its ?MCP server for
payment services?. This lets AI agents seamlessly connect with Alipay?s payment
platform.
That, in turn, enables Alipay users to ?easily make payments, check payment
statuses and initiate refunds using simple natural language commands?,
according to the Ant Group statement.
With MCP, various applications can provide relevant information to large
language models (LLMs) ? the technology underpinning generative AI services
such as ChatGPT ? while ensuring that these models function effectively within
a defined scope, the company said.
It added that MCP standardises how AI models interact with various data sources
and tools, like a ?USB-C port for AI applications?.
The adoption of MCP by some of China?s biggest tech firms shows how AI agents
are turning into a new avenue for domestic innovation and vast commercial
opportunities, compared with chatbots and LLMs.
[Photo caption: A demonstration video online shows artificial intelligence
agent Manus executing various practical tasks, such as creating a custom
website. Photo: Shutterstock]
American AI start-up Anthropic, which introduced MCP last November, said the
standard connects AI agents ? which serve as a layer on top of AI models ? to
the systems where data lives, ?including content repositories, business tools
and development environments?.
AI agents, such as Butterfly Effect?s Manus, are programs capable of
autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system. These
agents create a plan of specific tasks and subtasks to complete a goal using
available resources.
To improve integration efficiency between AI agents and external tools, Ant
Group said its AI agent development platform, dubbed Tbox, supports the
deployment of more than 30 MCP services now in the market. These include those
for Alipay and Amap Maps, as well as Google MCP and Amazon Web Services?
knowledge base retrieval server.
Earlier this month, Alibaba Cloud ? the cloud computing services and AI arm of
e-commerce giant Alibaba ? launched an MCP marketplace via its AI model hosting
platform ModelScope. The marketplace offers more than 1,000 services that
include those that connect to online mapping tools, office collaboration
platforms like Slack, online storage services, documents generated via Google
search, and cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools under Google
Workspace.
Chinese AI and online search firm Baidu, meanwhile, said its support for MCP is
expected to foster ?abundant use cases for [AI] applications and solutions?.
The growing domestic adoption of MCP, which has quickly become a de facto
global standard for AI integration, also lends credence to the assessment of
Butterfly Effect founder and chief executive Red Xiao Hong, who described an AI
agent as ?more like a human being?, compared with how chatbots perform, because
it not only thinks and answers questions, but interacts with its environment,
collects feedback and uses the feedback as a new prompt.
Ben Jiang
Ben is a Beijing-based technology reporter for the Post focusing on emerging
start-ups. He has previously covered Chinese tech for publications including KrA
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