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Sunday, Aug 16, 2026 - 18:17 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Bye For A Fly


Only Team Blue cultures represented
[N.B. Local nostalgia is dangerous because it could be popular!]
(Source: r/singapore)


In an apropos follow-up from the previous posts, a local secondary school has showcased their students' AI-powered remixes of familiar masterpieces, though it was readily noted that the underlying artworks were nearly-wholly Western (with the exception of an apparently-unchanged Great Wave off Kanagawa Kallang), and frankly had next to nothing to do with locals' heritage, either by ethnic inheritance or homegrown cultural evolution. Well, since the suggestion to pay for GPT subscriptions has been okayed by our local flagship university, we might get better slop innovation going soon.

This comes as the usual National Day flypast with our Lockheed and Boeing military aircraft was omitted from the 61st edition celebrations, though this was likely just due to the reduced visibility from the partially-enclosed stadium venue as was the case a decade ago, and not due to any "kill switch", which would be enforced by control over maintenance anyway. One's Greatest Game team colour may be having a heightened impact on what hardware they are allowed to access, as Malaysia found out a couple of months back when Norway unilaterally cancelled their delivery of some naval strike missiles, eight years into the contract; this had Malaysian PM Anwar echo local ministers, in openly recognizing that "might now makes right".

The sorting into teams thereof as hinted at in end-July is by the way being formalized by Team Blue leader America, who have just told their partners (including Singapore, in this context) that they must pick sides in the AI race against China. Surely it doesn't get much clearer that that! Recruitment for both America's Pax Silica and China's WAICO/Pax Sinica has been heating up with the former's "AI Opportunity Statement" getting 35 signatories to WAICO's 38 members, including nine as-yet-unnamed states beyond the 29 who registered in Shanghai. One suspects that at least some of those may be double-dipping, which doesn't look like it will be tolerated by the United States.



They can't be accused of not saying it loud and clear
(Source: channelnewsasia.com)


One does have to muse at the practical implications of joining either AI Team, given that Meta for one has just announced that it would release the weights for its latest Spark 1.2, along with a lightweight Muse Glimmer family that is set to succeed Llama. This answers in part the issue on the incongruity of America's representative firms maintaining proprietary closed-source models while China's are revealing theirs transparently, but it does leave the question of exclusive benefits to be addressed. The ongoing resource denial on chips and rare earths aside, it is as yet unclear as to why a country would not join Pax Silica (if admitted), while also drawing on cheaper Chinese LLMs and other initiatives, as the Filipino president has apparently hinted.

Unless some straight-up ban on usage of China firms' LLMs are imposed, however, the economic consequences with respect to American tech valuations would seem to remain, if with Anthropic for one maintaining a poker face with their projection of US$200 billion in revenue by 2028, up from maybe US$40-odd billion estimated for the year (but don't ask about actual profits yet). A shadow financial tussle may be taking place, as Our Most Successful National Investment Firm is reportedly pumping KOSPI from news that they are planning to invest in Samsung and SK Hynix, alongside Singapore's GDP growth forecast raised to about 5% due to a supposed AI boom. Eh, if the powers that be can propel Musk to be a trillionaire, they can well direct some dollars here (or not) if the stars align...

Well, as our esteemed Senior Ministers have taken pains to advise, locals may be too comfortable and conforming, in a rapidly-changing world crying out for unorthodox approaches. The leadership does at least seem to understand TRUMP's probable true tariff intents with their latest caution in seeking lower tariff rates (because frankly I doubt they 125 - or can even credibly do so, without overbalancing into the other team... which I doubt either bloc head would be displeased about, to be explained in the future), with some unexpected bipartisanship from the incumbent Parliament backing an (amended) Workers' Party motion on an inclusive economy.


[To be continued...]



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