Live data from Hacker News

USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

bluewin.ch

111–120 of 141 posts

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#111
Well, Switzerland should restrict access to what is now called "The Magnificent Seven" (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla):

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/u...

This article falsely claims that "the US leads AI development right now". A very high percentage of research and implementers is from the EU, China and Russia (e.g., Sutskever).

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#112

This is odd, ETH Zurich is one of the top ML research labs in the world. They routinely work with Disney! Are they going to block Germany and Max Planck Institute as well? (who commonly work with ETH Zurich) https://studios.disneyresearch.com/researchlab/disney-resear... https://www.youtube.com/disneyresearchhub

Let's be realistic EU would be dump to think that US under Trump will reliable continue to stay a alley of the EU (which doesn't mean they become a foe, either, reality is more complex then a dump black and white world few a lot of fictional stories love to have). Meta, OpenAI and similar have made it through their action very clear that they: - Want to abuse legislation to make sure no future competition can rise to…

This restriction was made by Biden not Trump

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#113
post #18
post #11

This restriction makes no sense. The US says "18 countries may purchase our AI chips", but what I understand is "90% of the world may purchase Chinese AI chips". China just needs to infiltrate Taiwan, which is geographically and culturally closer than the US.

> China just needs to infiltrate Taiwan, which is geographically and culturally closer than the US. Taiwan is China. Their official name is the Republic of China, and they're the remnants of the losers from the civil war that ran away go to an island and assimilated the locals. They still officially claim to be "the one and only real" China. For Americans, think it the Confederation ran away to Puerto Rico (assuming…

> Taiwan is China.

This is a sever case of word nit-picking and misinterpretation.

When (western) people say China they mean "China (PRC)" _never_ Taiwan and pretending they don't isn't helping anyone.

And just because two countries have the same root in a civil war of a past now gone country which both claim to succeed doesn't mean they are the same country. Nor is today's China the same country as idk. China during the Ming dynasty. Yes they are political successor, yes they use the same name, but no they aren't politically the same country if we really nit-pick. I mean if they where then we also would need to treat Austia and Hungary as the same country. Or say the BRD (i.e. today's Germany) is the same country as the 3rd Reich, Weimar Repulic and the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation. They are all predecessors of Germany, Germany has to take responsibility for some of it's past predecessors, too. But they aren't the same country from a political nit-picking POV. Same for Russia and the UDSSR etc. etc.

And yes it's complicated as both countries still claim sovereignty over the territory of each other. But for Taiwan that is ironically more to appease China, i.e. dropping that claim would signal Taiwan trying to finally fully break away from China (PCR) which China would never allow.

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first non white country there is Eritrea at 14.

TIL that Turkey is considered a white nation. Either case Switzerlands demographics don't seem too different from their neighbors like Austria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Austria I won't doubt that they have a Euro-centric immigration policy, but I'm curious why a landlocked nation in the center of Europe really needs anything else. I'm from a West African country and our immigration policy is arms…

> TIL that Turkey is considered a white nation.

What is a white nation?

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be realistic EU would be dump to think that US under Trump will reliable continue to stay a alley of the EU (which doesn't mean they become a foe, either, reality is more complex then a dump black and white world few a lot of fictional stories love to have). Meta, OpenAI and similar have made it through their action very clear that they: - Want to abuse legislation to make sure no future competition can rise to…

This restriction was made by Biden not Trump

fair, but realistically who trusts Biden? Especially after his behavior to the end of his terms?

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#116
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China just needs to infiltrate Taiwan, which is geographically and culturally closer than the US. Taiwan is China. Their official name is the Republic of China, and they're the remnants of the losers from the civil war that ran away go to an island and assimilated the locals. They still officially claim to be "the one and only real" China. For Americans, think it the Confederation ran away to Puerto Rico (assuming…

Are the machines German or am I misremembering? The ones in the video were maybe 14nm and I vaguely recall the machines being manufactured in Germany and flown and assembled for TSMC. I know, for example, that Motorola and Texas instruments know how to fab, and a dire shortage would be things like 680x0 and 6502 and 386 (see intel quark for the state of 386/486 processors a decade ago...) And ideally there'd be natio…

They are Dutch and insanely advanced and complex machines

https://youtu.be/h_zgURwr6nA?feature=shared

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#117
post #8
post #2

Do the Swiss want to be considered someone's ally or neutral?

Being from Denmark I have always been puzzled by how US/UK media portray us as neo-Hitlers for being slightly more critical of MENA immigration than our neighbors. Meanwhile Switzerland has been doing what almost amounts to white-only immigration to the point that their "troublesome" immigrants are Europeans from Albanaia and Serbia. Neutrality is good for PR.

> almost amounts to white-only immigration

This is wrong.

> In 2023, 30,223 people applied for asylum in Switzerland, an increase of over 20% compared to 2022. The main countries of origin were Afghanistan, Türkiye, Eritrea, Algeria and Morocco.

https://ecre.org/aida-country-report-on-switzerland-2023-upd...

Compared to only 2,122 asylum applications from refugees in Denmark in 2023 overall.

https://www.worlddata.info/europe/denmark/asylum.php

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#118
post #93

This is odd, ETH Zurich is one of the top ML research labs in the world. They routinely work with Disney! Are they going to block Germany and Max Planck Institute as well? (who commonly work with ETH Zurich) https://studios.disneyresearch.com/researchlab/disney-resear... https://www.youtube.com/disneyresearchhub

I think that Germany is much more of a bona fide ally of the US at this point than Switzerland.

Switzerland is not an ally to the US. Switzerland is a neutral country, although on friendly terms with many countries.

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#119

This is odd, ETH Zurich is one of the top ML research labs in the world. They routinely work with Disney! Are they going to block Germany and Max Planck Institute as well? (who commonly work with ETH Zurich) https://studios.disneyresearch.com/researchlab/disney-resear... https://www.youtube.com/disneyresearchhub

Let's be realistic EU would be dump to think that US under Trump will reliable continue to stay a alley of the EU (which doesn't mean they become a foe, either, reality is more complex then a dump black and white world few a lot of fictional stories love to have). Meta, OpenAI and similar have made it through their action very clear that they: - Want to abuse legislation to make sure no future competition can rise to…

"EU would be dump to think that US under Trump will reliable continue to stay a alley of the EU (which doesn't mean they become a foe, either"

Threatening with violence (over greenland) is something enemeys do. Not partners. Especially since denmark considered himself a close ally to the US. They are seriously reconsidering that part.

Now Trump being Trump it was of course mainly words to get a better deal. But to other parties, words have more meaning. So the long term effects are probably not beneficial to the US. Neither are moves like excluding Swiss from Chips. Now if the Swiss would have sold those to sanctioned countries - that might have been a understandable reasons. But like this, people are looking for new ways not involving the US.

Re: USA restricts Swiss access to AI computer chips

#120
post #91

Switzerland restricts access to its own allies of weapons that it sold to other countries because of internal concerns about how that could affect the country in the future. This seems to be at least partially similar to that. At this point AI could absolutely be considered potentially threatening in the future.

> Switzerland restricts access to its own allies of weapons that it sold to other countries because of internal concerns about how that could affect the country in the future. This is regarding resale, right? IIRC pretty much every country does that?

Yes, but in this concrete case it meant, that the Swiss prevented germany from transfering ammunition to Ukraine (over ammunition of the anti air tank Gepard, if I recall correctly).
Post reply on HN