Waiting for the virtual Laika

A useless tech war

The shock among politicians and on the stock markets was immense when it became clear that a Chinese company had launched a much cheaper AI assistant with DeepSeek. Within days, one trillion dollars in market value evaporated. The once seemingly secure lead of American Big Tech appeared to dissolve like mist in the morning sun. Whether DeepSeek represents a true technological breakthrough or is simply the result of clever theft, we do not yet know. But that hardly matters. The technology race is unfolding like the space race once did: the dynamics are predictable, the uselessness also, but the outcome remains uncertain.

Sputnik

Some are calling this the "Sputnik moment" of artificial intelligence. This refers to 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, into space. Sputnik 1 was soon followed by Sputnik 2, carrying the dog Laika, who had been picked up from the streets of Moscow. Laika became an icon of the space race, but her journey was one-way only. Within just a few hours in space, she died from overheating and stress. It was mainly a publicity stunt without any real purpose.

Yet it forced the United States into an unprecedented catch-up effort: NASA was established, billions were funnelled into DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an institution of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for developing military technology), and the defence industry grew explosively.

The space race produced innovations—think of the Internet, GPS, and communication satellites—but it primarily served the interests of big capital and the arms industry. The Russians looked to the stars but were left with empty shelves.

And now history is repeating itself. DeepSeek’s AI model, R1, has surprised the world by building a system with fewer resources that can compete with the best American models. And just like before, the first reaction is predictable. More investment, support for the major players, and yet another trade war. Or rather, a techno-war. The US is preparing to spend much more on AI to remain a front-runner. Europe also tries to close the gap (if possible) by investing more in AI. For all, it means that public funding will go to tech and not to people. Of course, the claim can be that it will deliver innovation for the future and is necessary in this race for global hegemony. All true. But it is questionable if this will improve the well-being of many.

Useless

But who truly benefits from all this? In China, AI is a tool of state control. In the U.S., it is part of a multibillion-dollar market where the winners are the tech companies, and the losers are the citizens. The CEOs of the biggest tech firms in the U.S. are now sitting at the table with policymakers—or are themselves the policymakers. The average citizen does not reap the rewards of advanced language models or faster image recognition with a well-stocked fridge. On the contrary, those whose jobs can be replaced by AI, those struggling with rising education and healthcare costs, and those seeing technology primarily being used to manipulate better and predict consumers—these people know that this race is not about progress for everyone. While billions are being invested in even more intelligent algorithms, waiting lists in healthcare grow, social inequalities increase, and necessities become ever more expensive.

The West won the Cold War. The average citizen’s life improved, and the West could afford the investments, unlike the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's economy could not bear the costs of the arms race. Or, to be more precise, the suffering of ordinary people was so huge that it destabilised the country.

But this is no guarantee for the current race. China has moved beyond mere copying. It has the people, the resources, a consistent policy, and the long-term vision required for a technological race. The U.S. has plenty of people and resources, but consistency and long-term commitment are certainly not Trump’s strong suits.

Perhaps China will soon send its own Laika into the world—but digitally. A virtual Laika is an AI that does not die but continues learning and evolving. A system that is not just a technological demonstration but autonomous proof that American supremacy is truly faltering. Unintentionally, it will also highlight—just as before—that a technology race is just as senseless as an arms race. The similarity is that the benefits will be reaped primarily by a small elite while the costs are borne by everyone else.

When the dust of this new technological race settles, we may realise once again that we have reached for the stars—while the earth beneath our feet has become poorer, more unequal, and warmer.

Shortened version was a column in Vrij Nederland