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Surprise! Australian Teens Still On Social Media

Australia made it illegal for anyone sixteen years or younger to use social media. Yet kids eight in ten kids still remain on social platforms says Reuters in the story, “Most Australian Teens Still On Social Media Three Months After Under-16 Ban Began,Study Finds.” Tech companies failed to implement proper effective age checks. It translates to them saying: no one cares about your laws.

A recent study from eSafety discovered that kids are still using the same amount of social media as before the ban in March. Parental awareness of their habits decreased, however, because they need to be on social media in secret. About half of the respondent to the study said they kept their old accounts or created new ones. The kids did report they are not being asked their age in order to create accounts on the platforms.

Australia will try to do something:

“After the March update, eSafety announced it was investigating possible non-compliance by five platforms: Meta’s (META.O) Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat (SNAP.N), TikTok and Google’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube. The government said in June it would double the maximum penalty on tech firms that failed to uphold the ban, and strengthen eSafety’s information-gathering powers. ‘While eSafety has observed some improvements by industry since its March social media minimum age update, concerns remain about the compliance of the five platforms named at that time,’ the regulator said.”

Is anyone else laughing at the Australian authorities right now? They’re trying to keep kids off social media, it’s worse than attempting to herd cats. Because Australia is unable to enforce its own law, Big Tech sees itself as the makers of the law, not law followers.

Whitney Grace, August 12, 2026

China Makes Its AI Intentions Clear to a Global Forum in Geneva

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

China intends to dominate smart software and make free or low cost systems and models available. The reasons: [a] Assert China’s move to the Big Dog in world affairs, [b] Make companies, governments, and organizations dependent on the Middle Kingdom, and [c] other countries are now under tianxia or “under heaven.” That heaven is China’s leadership.

Thanks, Midjourney. I didn’t have the energy to use a Chinese image generation model on Venice.ai. Good enough.

China was less direct, but that’s not surprising. But the message crept through even in Semafor’s “Token Diplomacy: How China Is Shaping the World’s AI Future.” The write up states:

The Chinese-led alliance was formed last year as a counter to US and European influence, and Wang spoke along with dozens of other Chinese government officials and executives to pitch ministers from Pakistan, Russia, Zambia, and across the Global South on how open-source AI could help their countries’ economies. The unspoken message: As America pulls back from many of the world’s regulatory bodies, China can be the more reliable partner. The moment offers a glimpse at the broader Chinese global strategy of a kind of “token diplomacy,” where efforts are centered around supplying AI tokens rather than ports, railways, telecom networks, and other infrastructure built across the developing world for more than a decade through the Belt and Road Initiative.

The themes of China’s approach to AI are simple: Dominate and control. You can fluff up the ideas with semantic whipped cream, but the objective is clear.

Semafor relays a statement by China’s boss:

A week after the UN conference, Chinese leader Xi Jinping put a finer point on the Chinese mission: “We should seize this rare, historic opportunity to encourage open source,” he said in a speech at the World AI Conference in Shanghai touting China as a benefactor to developing nations and as a global AI leader. “We should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI and placing one country’s security over that of others.” While Xi didn’t mention the US directly, he warned that “AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country” and pledged to help align global rules and technical standards through a new group of 29 countries called the World AI Cooperation Organization.

The US has set up a counter group dubbed Pax Silica. Quick response: Name the members of this US group other than the US. I know you failed. No biggie. The US assumes everyone knows what’s going on in its AI universe.

But the killer item in the Semafor write up was a chart with ominous red bars, not those limp-wristed HGTV calming colors. Here it is:

Biased? What isn’t these days? But the point is clear even if the statistics are sporty. [a] There are more red bars than blue bars. [b] The blue bars are short; that is, losers in the power ranking. And, [c] Some of the Chinese models are not particularly high profile in the US… yet.

Tanzania is firmly on the US side of the AI dust up. Even the Semafor “real” journalist reveals his skepticism of the China message, writing:

After talking to experts and technology leaders from governments around the world, I got the sense in Geneva that many are wary of building on Chinese open-source models that haven’t disclosed their training data and carry a Beijing-aligned framing on sensitive topics…

The essay / news report ends with this passage:

Some governments and institutions, including Singapore and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, don’t seem as worried about embracing Chinese AI for their localized models. Many developers and governments around the world may be more skeptical of American tech than Chinese alternatives. Noema Magazine also argued earlier this month that Western models carry embedded behaviors as well — and the open weights of China’s models at least let someone tweak them for their own needs and environment.

I have mentioned the information warfare theme of China smart, US dumb on several occasions. You can locate my observations using the search box on Beyond Search’s home page. I do want to offer a few observations:

1. The AI technology is important for two reasons in certain government circles: [a] Smart weapons; that is, cheap drones carrying enough kinetic wallop to take out really expensive aircraft and ground control components; and [b] intelligence; that is, the information provided by users of smart software is phoned home for analysis. (Yep, there are some real gems in that definitely non-synthetic data stream.)
2. China knows that it can make friends by funding and helping to rebuild countries’ infrastructure where certain military actions have converted buildings into rubble. Once the power comes on and stays on and the running water emerges from the shower, the users are ready to fall in love with whoever performed these magic tricks. Provide utility services and the hearts and minds will follow. This idea is not understood in some countries.
3. China’s models are “good enough”; that is, they output craziness in about the same volume as the Silicon Valley bros’ confections. What’s different is that within China, the important action is the use of applied and productized smart software. If you haven’t seen humanoid robots doing their tricks at Year of the Horse performances, check those out. I include a snip in my law enforcement and intelligence lectures because these devices are in limited use by the Chinese authorities. You can knock one over, but it gets up in a snappy way.

Net net: AI is now a geo-political weapon. It’s cool to think that a big fighter can win the skies. The problem is that the fights are won with small drones and running potable water. China is making clear that AI is part of its world order vision.

Stephen E Arnold, August 10, 2026

An AI Petition: Like Europe in the 1500s?

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

How did innovation work in Europe in the 16th-century? Political inconsistency, some notable public disturbances, and people who were smart moving from place to place to avoid problems. How does innovation work in the 21st-century? Yep, political inconsistency, some notable public disturbances just with zeros and ones, and people who are smart moving around.

I read several of the write ups about workers at AI companies wanting the US government to slow down AI. The write ups are similar, and I selected one that struck me as representative. The write up is “OpenAI, Anthropic Employees Urge White House to Slow AI Race.” The publisher is Hans Inc., which operates from India.

Thanks, Venice.ai. You are working on July 29, 2026, and outputting good enough artistic gems.

The write up states:

more than 1,100 employees from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and many other leading tech companies have joined forces to sign a statement addressed to the U.S. government regarding this breakneck pace of development. The employees—including senior executives and co-founders—want the Trump administration to intervene in how the most advanced AI models are developed, possibly by establishing AI governance mechanisms. They fear that if the situation continues unchecked, AI could spiral out of control.

Okay, news flash. AI is not exactly a secret system. The technology is explained in free videos. Big time publishers output articles and books about AI. ArXiv may as well be called AIxiv because the flow of gray write ups is robust. I gave up trying to keep track of interesting (probably non reproducible) research a year ago.

The earnest people at Hans report:

researchers and scientists are concerned that if AI gains the ability to train itself, it could surpass our capacity for oversight. The problem, according to the researchers, is that companies are competing to create more advanced models, leaving little time to fully address risks and implement safety measures. “Every company—and every country—is under intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slowdown that acceleration. And today, the world lacks the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately regulate the pace of cutting-edge advances in this field,” they stated.

I wish to remind the folks signing petitions that rationality is not exactly rampant in the world today. Did you know there was a war raging in the border region between Guyana and Venezuela as well as the more well publicized disputes in Eastern Europe and the Middle East? One would think that rational arguments and political actions would coincide, wouldn’t one?

Yeah, let me know how that works.

Several observations are warranted:

1. Smart software seemed like a better bet than quantum computing to become the “next big thing.” Microsoft forced the issue. In the words of a Googler, “Let’s put some wood behind AI.” Outfits which had been chugging along trying to create a better way to process information burst into the bright glow of burning millions and then billions in AI research and development. Me-too outfits emerged from China, France, Germany, and other countries. Someone told me that the prone AI professor in Canada was the “father of AI.” Okay, Canada, you are in. How does a petition inject rational thought into a political process in one country? Falling behind means the other guys will have administrative privileges for SkyNet and Terminator.
2. AI is definitely, 100 percent excellent for cyber crime. Now almost anyone with a mobile phone can spin up an automated phishing campaign. If it doesn’t work, well, just try again using another free service. Once a grandma coughs up $1,000 for her beloved grandson’s bail, the bad actor can use Telegram to operate like a cyber criminal from 2015. Will the bad actors give up AI? Yeah, right.
3. US-style AI is a great training ground, source of content, and provider of systems and methods. Should anyone be surprised that those interested in AI are going to the well in Silicon Valley and sucking out something essential for survival. News flash: Most of the IP has been used to water AI hot houses around the world. To use a well-worn metaphor, the barn burned, the horses are gone, and a Temu-type outfit is planning a large AI data center on the property. Petitions? Nope, just a local building permit and a business or intelligence agency’s operational plan.
4. Are there accelerationists with political clout? I can’t answer that question, but the petition signers should work up an answer to this question.

Net net: The AI sky is brightly lit. There are the cash dumpster fires. The glow of jet turbines at data centers. The fierce light in the eyes of the BAIT (big AI tech) luminaries. And the sad camp fires of those without jobs camping on the streets in major US cities. Yep, nice try. Too bad the AI aircraft have departed.

Stephen E Arnold, August 7, 2026

The Semi-Zipped Lips of AI Wizards: Yeah, It Is Fear of Losing and No PR

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

In the dust bin of my memory is a lecture given by one of my history teachers. His name was Phil Crane, who left academia and jumped into the political world. Before he dropped off my radar, I recall his lecture about China’s lock down to prevent non-Chinese influences and Western ideas into the Middle Kingdom. We know how that played out: China is now the Big Dragon in technology, and it is the exporter of products and services. One notable Chinese idea is AI information warfare.

Here’s business idea for AI techno-wizards. Afraid of non-US AI advances? Well, just get in line to speak with the professionals at the Paranoia Clinic. You will be a better AI wizard in no time flat. It’s like an air fryer for the mind. Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.

What’s going on now?

“AI’s Top Startups Are Barely Publishing Their Research” says:

More than half of AI “unicorns” have never published a paper or preprint.

To top off the clamp down, I learned from my team that no Chinese robot vacuum cleaners will be keeping American homes squeaky clean. Is this Huawei-China paranoia or the US emulating the Ming and Qing “haijin” approach to new ideas? And what about those kung fung capable humanoid robots? Forget those.

My dinobaby take on this lock down in AI information is that the US tech bros and bro-ettes are genuinely paranoid about non-US countries’ advances in smart software. China captures the hearts and minds of some big thinkers. However, AI is bubbling along in Germany and, believe it or not, in the United Arab Emirates.

Let’s take a look at the cited write up. I noted this passage:

a new preprint posted on 16 July on bioRxiv suggests many of these [US AI] firms barely participate in one of science’s most fundamental practices: publicly documenting discoveries in scientific literature so other researchers can evaluate and build on them. More than half of AI unicorns—private companies valued at more than $1 billion—have never played a leading role in publishing a scientific paper or preprint, according to the new analysis. Collectively, they accounted for just one in every 1000 AI papers published in 2025.

From my vantage point in rural Kentucky, these actions reveal:

1. A knee jerk reaction to the consequences of the AI tech bros’ and bro-ettes’ behavior. It’s hard to believe, but the Silicon Valley way is akin to navel gazing and general unawareness of what’s shakin’ in Harrods Creek, Kentucky-type locations
2. A failure to think about how to vet employees. The bizarro evaluation processes overlook or ignore where an employee’s loyalties lie or where his or her parents live. In some countries, government authorities ring up a national working at an American AI outfit and suggest that momsie will be put in prison unless the foreign national exfiltrate information. The result is that a shadow information outflow is institutionalized in some sectors. (I have a great story about how Chinese think about secrecy. Let’s just say it is variable depending on context.)
3. A somewhat surprising cloud of unknowing about international political contexts. The AI whiz kids and the MBAs wearing Wolf of Wall Street pinky rings assume their activities occur in a terrarium. Sorry, bros- and bro-ettes. Other countries think about short cuts just as you do. However, those often involve trips around the barn quite unappealing to those who dream of home runs, monopoly control, and big yachts. As a result, the terrarium has glass walls and an open top. What’s in it can be taken out. Those tech conferences? Yep, those are useful, probably more than the gray papers stuffed into ArXiv.

Proprietary information is routine for many businesses. Pharma outfits are not known for their eagerness to share clinical trials data that leaves people worse off after the “test” than before. Some big time quants on Wall Street are not showing up at math conferences to explain how their algorithms cause money to pour from the pockets of investors to their bank accounts. Plus, everyone needs know how. Why share it unless there is a deeper reason; for example, closing a deal or circling the wagons because some angry people want to kill you for trespassing?

My take is that the info-shut down is a result of fear. AI has the potential to become a significant next-generation innovation. Sure, it needs refinement, but it is showing promise. Therefore, button up and batten down the hatches.

A second reason is that the tech bros, in the US, are playing a weird game of saying one thing, contradicting it, seeking US government help, pushing back on some US government activities, signing petitions then demanding regulations after non-regulation exists partially because of big tech’s lobbying efforts. Okay, which is it?

Today it is fear and lock down.

Because I am old, I find the situation interesting. I predict that nervous tech bros will morph into even more wild and wooly business luminaries. Buckle up. The unregulated joy ride is heading toward the most thrilling part of the roller coaster.

Stephen E Arnold, August x, 2026

Lock In: Is This the Obvious AI Go Move?

I don’t trust much, including free or low cost AI from China. I am also cautious about China’s statements about its technology. I like to see others validate or question LLM performance data. I know that the Chinese government wants to be top technology dog, and may go to extraordinary lengths to capture that title. The Wire China asks an interesting question about the current state of China’s AI boom: “Can China Keep Its AI Open?”

Allegedly China’s Kimi K3 outperformed Anthropic’s most advanced AI offering. President XI Jinping was proud of the moment and praised open source technology at the World AI Conference in Shanghai. In the same speech, he warned that AI is accelerating at an advanced speed and he called for laws and regulations to be put in place. This is not surprising:

“Those two priorities of openness and security will become increasingly difficult to reconcile. As Chinese models approach the frontier, open-weight releases risk diffusing powerful AI capabilities beyond Beijing’s ability to control. Recent reporting suggests Beijing is already beginning to grapple with that dilemma. Nine days before President Xi’s remarks, Reuters revealed that China’s Commerce Ministry had convened Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai to discuss curbing overseas access to their most advanced models, with options ranging as far as barring public release.”

China is known to be hypocritical, especially when the world’s eyes are focused on it. The Chinese government might have “selective openness” where the “good enough” models are left open source, while the best ones are kept under lock and key. However:

“The stakes extend well beyond China. Chinese models now account for the plurality of open-model downloads worldwide, meaning the line Beijing draws will shape both what developers and governments build on and which advanced AI capabilities are freely available to malicious actors. But selective openness only works if Beijing can tell which models are dangerous, and it currently lacks the evaluation tools to make that judgment.”

China likes open source because it is a way of undermining the perceived US hegemony in smart software. If China continues to support open source (at least on the surface), the country has leverage. (Could this be compared to Iran’s ability to make life difficult for those who want to traverse a certain waterway?) China likes subtle long term tactics.

Several observations are warranted:

1. What happens if non-Chinese firms embrace Chinese open source smart software? IBM-like lock in may take place. Shifting from one platform to another is an often expensive task.
2. What happens if Chinese smart software phones home or has the ability to install the capability after the cyber security wizards check out the code? If Anthropic and OpenAI cannot control their software, can the Chinese or say they cannot?
3. What happens if Chinese smart software provides the rails to send freight cars chock full of malware into organizations? Apple can’t fix unintentional bugs quickly; could equally competent engineers respond to AI malware vectors operating inside of an organization’s systems?

Net net: Lock in worked for IBM, and it will work for others as well.

Whitney Grace, August 3, 2026

The Frisky French: Snag Durov, Summon Musk, and Step on Social Media

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

I have a gizmo

In rural Kentucky, France means eating frogs, nasty waiters, and crazy drivers. To those who have a bit more exposure to la belle France, the country values its language, its historical culture, and education. (Yep, French shopkeepers can make change. I know that sounds crazy to someone from Kentucky.)

France also watches, thinks, and then acts. In the thrashing about American big tech outfits, France took a couple of notable actions. First, the French judiciary picked up Pavel Durov, the self-proclaimed GOAT (greatest of all time) Russian innovator, held him for a few days, and explained that he would [a] have to check in with the J3 unit each week, [b] could not leave the borders of France without a note from Madame Brousse (one of the French judiciary officials not amused by online crime), and [c] would be standing trial for a numbers of criminal acts. As a French citizen, France just arrested Durov.

Tech bros get invited to go with a French law enforcement officer. The police van is the weird white vehicle chock full of other officers. Thanks, Midjourney. The van is old fashioned but good enough.

Then France raided the offices of one of Elon Musk’s companies. As part of that legal action, France summoned Mr. Musk and a former member of the Musk “leadership” to an interview. Musk and his former colleague did not show up. As a result, a quick trip to Cannes to catch some sun and a nice dinner could result in the arrest of Mr. Musk. The ensuring legal process would be interesting to observe as the world’s richest person and his legal team poke their hands into the Nutty Putty of the French criminal system.

“French Lawmakers Approve a Sweeping Social Media Ban for Children under 15” reports that France is taking direct action against what is another manifestation of American big tech. The write up reports:

France banned children under 15 from using social media on Tuesday, becoming the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms as concerns grow worldwide over the harmful effects of digital content on kids. Both chambers of the Parliament voted in favor of the measure, a flagship initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron’s second term. The bill also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools.

The news article contains what I think the true message of this action is. The AP report quotes M. Macron as saying (presumably in French but translated by the AP system):

We will keep on going.

The news stories don’t ask what is to me the big question, “What’s the next French move that is aimed at online crime and US big tech?” The Telegram crowd has learned that keeping its founder and GOAT on a tether has not boosted the fortunes of the firm. Musk and his acolyte have not been given first hand exposure to the French legal system. The youth and the enablers who allow kids to doomscroll have not been directly affected by these unilateral French actions.

Therefore, I want to speculate, based on my limited experience, interacting with the French firms over the decades:

1. The French Foreign Legion marches at a slower pace than most special military groups. The menacing beat of the blood sausage means, in my vernacular, “Here we come. Get out of the way or you get stepped on, maybe killed.” You can listen to the tune on the social media superstar platform YouTube. (Are you listening, Google?) France is making clear that it will do more than just terminate Palantir Technologies’ hopes of selling licenses to the French government.
2. When the French turn their attention to platforms that do not assist the government in enforcing the ban, my hunch is that the offices of these firms will be raided, executives arrested, and American leadership summoned. Obviously some big tech AI companies will ignore the French requests. However, that creates the potential for excitement when one of these high fliers enters France and possibly one of those cute little police vans.
3. French officials will make certain that appropriate, low key reports about the ban mechanics are communicated to other European Union states, Europol, and probably to other key entities; for example, EU data center operators and the authorities in the countries in which the data centers are domiciled.

How will these actions affect the futures of big tech outfits? The Durov arrest has allowed Telegram to demonstrate some cracks in its 13 year super structure. The xAI facilities in Paris are obviously attentive to what the French judiciary is doing. The US social media companies are probably adding the ban to the agenda of one of those Silicon Valley type executive meetings.

Net net: France is taking action. Other, less bold countries, are likely to follow suit. Social media is synonymously with US technology. I think there are some storm clouds visible on the horizon.

Stephen E Arnold July 29, 2026

PS. Here’s a segment of the lyrics to Le boudin (the blood sausage):

(French)
Nous sommes des dégourdis, 
Nous sommes des lascars, 
Des types pas ordinaires, 
Nous avons souvent notre cafard, 
Nous sommes des légionnaires. 

(Google Translate English)
We are resourceful, 
We are tough guys, 
Not your ordinary types, 
We often feel down, 
We are legionnaires. 

India and Stealth Message Dislike. Yo, Mr. Dorsey

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

It seems to me that India is just as annoyed with some US big tech linked software as the European Union. “India Orders Takedown of Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin-Linked Messaging App Bitchat.” I am not going to trudge through how Mr. Dorsey’s approach to messaging sidesteps service providers. The idea is simple. Two or more people in proximity want to chat. No problemo. Just use Bitchat. Perfect for certain types of operators who want to remain beyond the reach of SS7, cell tower spoofers, and similar nifty techniques for message access.

Thanks, MidJourney, good enough.

The article explains the technology this way:

Bitchat is built to relay bitcoin transactions offline, passing them phone to phone through the mesh until a device with connectivity broadcasts them to the network, a design meant to keep payments alive during blackouts, disasters or state-imposed shutdowns. That is the property bitcoin’s supporters value most, the ability to transact without permission from any government or intermediary, and it is now being tested against a government trying to switch it off.

The write up says:

The order targets Bitchat, an offline Bluetooth mesh app built to relay encrypted messages and bitcoin transactions, as ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ protesters in Delhi use mesh tools to communicate through internet shutdowns…. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, part of the Home Ministry, issued the order late Thursday under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, naming three GitHub repositories tied to Bitchat and giving the platform three hours to disable access.

I don’t know much about the Cockroach Junta Party, but if I were still working in government services, I would not wear a brightly colored baseball cap with Cockroach Junta embroidered on it. (I do like the phrase Cockroach Junta, however. Very cute.)

The write up points out:

India’s top cybercrime watchdog has ordered GitHub to take down Bitchat, the offline messaging app built by Block chief executive and bitcoin advocate Jack Dorsey, as anti-government protesters in Delhi adopt mesh-networking tools to communicate through repeated internet shutdowns.

My thought is that Mr. Dorsey may not want to travel to India for a week with Bihar trained yoga teachers at the Ananda. It is possible that Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre might want to talk face to face with him.

Several observations:

1. India, like France, is just taking action.
2. The knock on effects of India’s GitHub order are difficult to predict. Microsoft GitHub is an important service, but when Microsoft enterprise licenses may be at stake, India’s action — like France’s arrest of the GOAT Pavel Durov — may provide governments with a way to catch the attention of real big time deciders like Microsoft’s leadership.
3. The push back signals that sitting down with the Cockroach crowd is unlikely. It is possible for India to amp up punitive actions against those in the junta. (I think that’s why my hat idea is not going to be adopted.)

Net net: US big tech and high profile technology innovators appear to be less popular than in years past.

Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2026

Chinese AI Wizard Wants to Be Part of the AI Oligopoly Too

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

I read “Deepseek’s Liang Wenfeng Breaks His Silence.” If you are not clued into the Chinese AI scene, Deepseek is a player. Wenfeng is a wizard in the Middle Kingdom.” On the surface, this essay seems to be a recycling and summary of the points Wenfeng made in a lengthy conversation with “its investors.” As a dinobaby, I think that the call is a PR output. I don’t have any concrete proof other than the words in the write up, but I have a hunch this is content designed to further the theme “China smart, US dumb” or “China’s AI will win, US AI will lose.” If you don’t agree, drop by the rest home, interrupt my bingo game, and argue with me and the other old timers. I bet you can’t wait to do that. Okay, buttercup, buckle up. I want to run down some points that jumped off the page at me.

First, consider the positioning of Deepseek versus its US competition:

Your analysis may be different, but mine suggests that this is not accidental framing.

Second, I printed out the essay and noted these phrases:

• “hold back and be kind”
• “earn only a fair profit”
• “everyone gains and lives together”
• “not fighting or competing”
• “American companies have no strong reason to push costs”
• “very high profits are weak in terms of strategy”

I have been in some wordsmithing meetings. This lingo smacks of official phraseology. Am I overly suspicious? Heck, no. I believe everything I read on the Internet.

Finally, the persona of the AI wizard is not just a high-tech executive. The approach presents Wenfeng as a philosopher, maybe a Chinese version of Alex Karp. But the write up is a little wacky. If only a handful of AI outfits will survive as foundation operators, why does Wenfeng want to join the oligarchy club. Does his company need this positioning because oligarchs operate in a way that is different from the state-linked high technology businesses. Wenfeng’s approach is to sound non-competitive but the underlying strategy is quite competitive.

Net net: This is likely a carefully shaped message. How many similar messages will be released in the near future?

Stephen E Arnold, July 27, 2026

Happy Family with Apple: The Recipe for More Money

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

247WallSt that takes a look at Apple and China, the cook has wok’ed up a rewarding dish. “China’s New AI Breakthrough Shows Tim Cook’s Risky Final Bet Might Actually Be Genius” suggests that Apple is an AI genius. (Those annoyed with Siri are simply not into the Jobs’s reality distortion field.)

Suddenly China has made Apple a new rival in the AI race, because China’s Cyberspace Administration has given the green light to the Chief Cook to launch Apple Intelligence in the Middle Kingdom. It is a happy family indeed: The Chinese authorities, Alibaba with its Qwen model integrating with Apple’s operating systems, and Baidu participating as a development partner. Stock markets liked the partnership and the three tech companies saw their stock jump a few points. Techno-whatever in action.

Apple wanted to deploy its intelligence model since 2024 in China, but the Chinese government has been reluctant until there was a benefit for the country. China may have wanted to press forward with their domestic models until those reached or exceeded the performance of the US models.

The write up suggests that Tim Cook made a smart move not owning its intelligence software:

“While Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta poured tens of billions into proprietary frontier models and data centers, Apple declined to join that arms race. It bet on a “model-agnostic” partnership approach, plugging in outside intelligence rather than owning it.That looked passive to critics. But the China approval shows the upside. By partnering with Alibaba and Baidu, Apple met local regulatory requirements almost automatically. The same playbook is visible at home: Apple struck a multi-year deal to use Google’s Gemini to help power its revamped Siri, expected to launch in September, running in part on Google Cloud and Nvidia chips.”

This move was deemed as risky for Apple, but now the company can wear whatever AI suit it wants without bearing the burden of computing. Does this mean that The Chief Cook is following the game plan of Pavel Durov, the Telegram GOAT? I don’t know. But my hunch is that there will be a payoff for cooking up a happy family with Apple. Trade issues, Department of Commerce concerns? Nope, just a happy family.

Whitney Grace, July 27, 2026

European Innovation from the Karp Experience

Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.

Since I believe everything I read online, I have to provide my interpretation of “France and Germany Pledge to Build a European Rival to Palantir’s Military AI Software.” What caught my eye was the eclectic typography used by the Next Web online information service; to wit:

Design forward.

The article states:

France and Germany pledged on Friday to develop a European alternative to Palantir’s military AI software. A joint declaration signed after talks between Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz committed the two countries to examine “a European sovereign digital backbone” covering data-centric security, AI, and cloud solutions. France’s Arcadia, an AI-powered command-and-control platform, was named as the starting point, alongside unspecified “comparable German solutions.”

I get emails from German intelware companies. These are low-profile outfits, and they are not into US-style marketing and PR. You can chase down the names of these firms using European-centric search services like Swisscows.com, Yandex.com, and Qwant.com. Information about German intelware firms appears in some Telegram Groups and Channels. But Germany intelware companies don’t market to the general public, I am not going to identify some of the more interesting outfits’ capabilities and specialized services.

Good enough, Midjourney.

The write up points out:

Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp called Germany’s refusal to consider his company “conversations about witchcraft“ in a Bild interview last month, arguing the software was proven on every serious battlefield. That argument has not moved Berlin. The sovereignty question is not whether Palantir’s technology works, it plainly does, but whether Europe’s most sensitive military infrastructure should depend on an American company at a time when transatlantic relations cannot be taken for granted. France and Germany have now put that question into a joint declaration. Whether they can turn it into working software is the harder part.

The article doesn’t provide much information about Chapsvision. I pulled some information from my old-fashioned dinobaby files:

1. Chapvision is a French outfit. Its industrial-strength specialized services run from the OVH datacenters. For those who don’t follow data centers providing secure services, OVH is in this business, and, as you might guess, is a French outfit.
2. The firm’s technology includes AI as well as technology acquired from Sinequa. To remain on the up and up, Sinequa was a client for which I performed very tiny, inconsequential work.
3. The agentic technology is available under the name Chaps Agents. The AI technology is called Argonos.
4. An English-language summary of what Chapvision provides to government entities is online at this Web page. The firm’s catchphrase is “Data Make Sense.”
5. The company opened its doors in 2019 and about a year ago made clear that it wanted to expand its OSINT services.

My takeaway from the announcement is that neither France nor Germany are too far from the Swiss government’s assessment of Palantir. I think the issue is a combination of management posture, cost, client satisfaction, and trust. But, as a dinobaby, I often am incorrect in today’s zoom zoom world.

Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2026

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  Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.

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