Show Notes
Steve and Alf discuss geopolitical events of 2025 and what they expect in 2026.
Links: Manifold episode with Han Feizi, Letter From Beijing https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/letter-from-beijing-with-han-feizi-72
Previous crossover episodes:
Weeks Where Decades Happen https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/seeking-truth-from-facts-weeks-where-decades-happen
AI, China, Tariffs, Geopolitics https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/seeking-truth-from-facts-ai-china-tariffs-geopolitics-84
(00:00) - Geopolitics 2026, crossover with Seeking Truth From Facts podcast – #103
(02:10) - US-China Economic Tensions
(05:45) - Technology and Strategic Shifts
(08:48) - Trump's Geopolitical Strategy
(17:43) - Middle East Developments
(28:41) - US-China Competition and Taiwan
(33:44) - Venezuela and International Law
– Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.
Announcing this for some friends at Mechanize - a startup that builds environments for training and evaluating frontier LLMs. Its customers include the top AI labs, and it has contributed to the breakthrough in coding capabilities of frontier models.
Mechanize is hiring! https://mechanize.work/b/hsu
Compensation is extremely competitive. For technical roles, $300-500k. They are also seeking smart generalists.
For example:
Research Engineer, Alignment: Build evals that test for misaligned model behaviors $500K salary
Puzzle Maker: Design interesting and original puzzles that LLMs can’t yet solve $300K salary
Mechanize understands that my readership is highly selected. There is a VERY GOOD CHANCE you will be interviewed if you apply via the link above.
More from Manifold
Special episode recorded in Beijing. Steve discusses the future of mathematics in light of recent AI breakthroughs, the state of AI in China, and some thoughts on China's innovation economy. Chapter Markers:
Brian Chau is a mathematician, machine learning specialist, and the founder of Effort News, an independent media outlet focused on data-first, document-led investigative journalism.
Machine God is a feature-length AI documentary film, created by Steve Hsu, John Greer, and Lei Huang. This episode discusses the film's creation and content. Chapter Markers:
Dr. Thomas Fink is an Anglo-American physicist, author, and entrepreneur who serves as the founding Director of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences (LIMS).