AI Regulation: Who Really Slows Tech Progress

Who Regulates AI and Why It’s Not Just the Left

Is there really a political faction bent on halting scientific-technical pogre? The discussion starts with an AI regulation news item: a financial analyst claims a crisis could build enough support to overcome presidential opposition to regulating artificial intelligence models. From there, the leap to "they want to control us" is automatic.

The first objection is factual, not opinionated: China trinc the rules. It was among the first countries with specific regulations for generative AI. Since 2023, public-facing models require registration and safety assessments by regulators; recommendation algorithms must be registered; since 2025, labeling AI-generated content is mandatory; and models cannot contradict "fundamental socialist values." None of this has stopped pogre: DeepSeek, Qwen, and others continue advancing. There, regulation exists but serves the state, not as a brake.

Security Argument as Control Excuse

The second front is the security narrative. It is claimed that only politicians and their agencies complain about lack of AI security, while ordinary people face no issues with commercial models nor feel harmed by them. The conclusion drawn: security is a recycled excuse to exercise more control. This is a defensible thesis, but it is worth remembering that Republicans also support AI laws in the US, so the left-right axis does not explain the entire regulatory landscape.

From Software to Hardware: Existing Espionage

The conversation shifts to an uncomfortable question: do you use an operating system or app from a company that spies on you? The short answer is that espionage doesn’t start in the app. It lies in hardware and communications infrastructure. The NSA’s ANT catalog, revealed in 2013, documented implants for specific brand hardware: Dell server BIOSes, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung, and Western Digital disk firmware, persistence in Juniper firewalls, USB implants inserted between connector and bus. These weren’t bar talk ideas: there were photos, versions, and prices.

The Equation Group, documented in 2015, hid its malware in hard drive firmware, in the area rewritten during formatting. You format, reinstall, change OS, and the bug remains. Added to this are suspicions about chips in Supermicro servers and modifications in corporate routers and Cisco and Huawei firewalls. The practical conclusion: the data you voluntarily give to an app is the visible part of a much more opaque business.

Emptiness as Cause Driver

The sharpest criticism isn’t against regulators, but against those who spend all day pointing at them. The accusation: dedicating your mind to a cause you can neither control nor direct is the most effective way not to build a life of your own. Technocracy feeds on memes and motivation, and the activist ends up being the product. This is a psychological reading, not economic, but it explains why the debate repeats without advancing.

In the end, the question remains: does AI get regulated by those wanting to stop pogre or by those wanting to charge the toll gate? The "pogre" claim sounds like a slogan; the registrations, assessments, and mandatory labels sound like business.