On Bended Knee.

Political News Items on powering AI.

This piece was posted at Political News Items on Saturday. As you know, President Trump is threatening Canada with steep tariffs if it doesn’t “secure its border.” We argue that the U.S. would be better served “securing” from Canada the excess power needed to keep data centers up and running. Data centers are the engines of artificial intelligence. Without them, AI is not a fact. It’s a vast collection of algorithms.

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One of the “narratives” that the incoming Trump administration is selling to the news media is “Trump is reminding everyone who’s boss.” It’s working, if post-election polls about the Trump transition are to be believed (and they are).

On Friday, the story was Mexico’s president “bowing to Trump’s demands” in an “excellent” phone call. Today, the story is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “arriving at Mar-a-Lago on bended knee.” Per Bloomberg:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, according to people familiar with their plans, as the incoming US leader threatens to implement fresh tariffs on neighboring countries unless they halt the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented migrants across borders.

Trudeau landed in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday evening, people familiar with the plans said, speaking on condition of anonymity to share details on the meeting.

Trump earlier this week vowed to hit Canada and Mexico as well as China with additional tariffs, casting the levies as necessary to secure US borders, a top concern of voters in November’s presidential election. The president-elect said he would impose additional 10% tariffs on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada if they failed to act….

Trudeau is under pressure at home to step up border security and defense spending to assuage Trump’s concerns. Ontario’s Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, said after a meeting of the premiers and prime minister that he has been pushing Trudeau for months to show that Canada will work to address US economic and security worries. Trudeau was the first Group of Seven leader to have a face-to-face meeting with Trump since the US election.

“The symbolism of Trudeau going down to Palm Beach on bended knee to say ‘Please don’t’ is very, very powerful,” said Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“The stakes are enormously high and Trudeau has to deliver on this,” Hampson said. “Otherwise, it’s going to be seen by Canadians as a failed mission, because we all know why he’s going down there and it’s not to baste the turkey for Trump.” (Source: bloomberg.com)

That’s nice and neat, as narratives go, and Team Trump is getting little, if any, pushback on it. The problem is: it misstates the actual balance of power between the two nations.