The Innovation Mirage: Why DeepSeek and Kimi 3 Do Not Settle the Question of Chinese Technological Supremacy

Every so often, a new Chinese model arrives to reset the conversation about who leads the artificial intelligence race. DeepSeek did it first, startling commentators who had assumed that American export controls guaranteed a durable lead. Now Kimi 3 has revived the same chorus, with observers arguing that China has quietly closed, or even erased, the gap in frontier technology.

The Pretexts and Motives Behind Government Regulation

Government regulations are enacted as consumer protections on the premise that the state disciplines markets better than markets discipline firms. In competitive markets with strong property rights, firms must continually satisfy consumers on price and quality or lose them to rivals, and avoid harming property owners who can obtain relief from courts that enforce their rights.

The Liberalization of Holidays and the Ownership of Time

One area that has received relatively little attention among liberals is the issue of liberty in determining holidays and leisure time. The classical liberal tradition has long regarded each individual’s right to make decisions regarding the use of their own time as self-evident; however, it has paid less attention to the ways in which governments violate this right through official holidays and restrictions on nighttime business activities.

The Illegal Constitutional Amendment

The 14th Amendment has been used extensively to decide on the constitutionality of many issues, among others segregation in schools, “civil rights,” immigration, and abortion. Debates over the meaning of the Amendment have produced an enormous literature. But there is a more fundamental issue that is generally ignored. Was the 14th Amendment legally ratified? If it wasn’t, the framework for much of subsequent constitutional law collapses.

Ahoy! Ahoy! The Telephone, Entrepreneurship, and Cronyism

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted US Patent No. 174,565 for the speaking telegraph or telephone. Three weeks earlier, on February 14, both Bell and another inventor, Elisha Gray, submitted their respective ideas to the US Patent Office. On March 10, Bell used a liquid transmitter (an early microphone) to call his assistant, Thomas Watson, with the words, “Mr.