>I think the idea is to starve the Chinese on AI advances, but there isn't much point spending a fortune training such models when you can have an insider leak it to you for much less money.

But why is this a good idea? You're saying it as if it's obviously a good idea. Why not cut off the entire food supply from some impoverished nation in Africa? Is that justified? What justifies stopping AI advances or blocking technological progress in China?

Seems like the main justification is that we can't accept China surpassing us. That's not a moral excuse, it's a petty one.

It's not my idea, it's an attempt to explain the intent of the sanctions, I'm very against the sanctions for a multitude of reasons. If you see my other comments on this page you can see where I've stated that I would much rather, as you suggest, the West gracefully step down from a hegemon and take our seat at the multi-polar world where we can focus on cleaning our own house.

ah. We're in agreement. nm, I misunderstood what you said.

The US should act in its best interests, not China's. What's the advantage in helping a geopolitical adversary who has not demonstrated much capacity for "playing by the rules"?

It's counterproductive which means it is not in the best interest of the US and actually in the best interest of China. It only makes sense to me as prelude to a war and as part of a 'timing attack', if there is no subsequent war to then all that has happened is the creation of an indigenous industry for much less cost to China than what it would have been if China had tried to do it by itself without sanctions. To be clear, I very much don't want this war, for one I think the West would lose, and even if we 'won' the middle class would be crushed without access to cheap chinese goods.

The West would lose? How? China cannot project force aside from ICBMs.

So, it's to our advantage to give away IP instead of making them discover and invent things on their own? This is some r/latestagecapitalism level of nonsense.

Allowing the chinese to buy foreign goods is not giving away our IP it's selling goods which is what you normally do with goods. And yes it selling them goods would slow down their tech advancement for the reasons I listed - it's an ironic emergent behavior but it is one that repeats all the time so people should know about it. Nassim Taleb calls it antifragile but it has occurred throughout history. You make an enemy stronger by attacking them, which is not to say don't attack your enemies, just be more careful about it.

I said I think we'll lose and even if we win the result will still be calamitous. I think people have rose tinted glasses of the 1950s and think that a war time economy and a military victory will bring that back. It wont.