The faithful transcript of my first conversation with Deepseek. Looking at where we are right now (April 2025), I'm not really sure that I should be more wary of Chinese than of US AI. So I went and dipped my toe. I didn't give away too many personal secrets, other than the fact that I'm an OBVIOUS NERD. If you are not, you won't enjoy this post, in which I discuss the works of Liu Cixin and classic Doctor Who. If you are an OBVIOUS NERD, you might be interested.

Anyone who knows a bit about East Asia should be aware of the fact that China doesn't really have a lot of friends in the immediate neighbourhood. The only real "friend" that Xi Jinping has around him is Vladimir Putin. The kind of friend we all dream of. A couple of nights ago, while analysing who's GONNA win this superpower showdown, I heard a French journalist mention that one of China's great weaknesses in this confrontation is her lack of soft power. I've been thinking about that over the ensuing 24-48 hours, and this post is the outcome.