As an artist who works both with and against algorithms, I exist in a state of constant negotiation. I navigate between American and Chinese AI biases while already living at odds with how Danish institutions try to define my art and identity. This has become even more complex as rising Danish nationalism attempts to enforce its own rigid version of cultural identity - a local form of control that can feel as suffocating as the global cultural imperialism of superpowers.
When I use DeepSeek, its censorship is obvious and jarring - clear boundaries I can’t cross, topics that simply won’t be discussed, a rigidity that reflects its origins. Yet I’ve grown so accustomed to American AI’s forms of control that they’ve become almost invisible to me - the subtle ways ChatGPT steers conversations, its carefully calibrated avoidance of certain topics, its embedded Silicon Valley worldview that I’ve learned to work around without even noticing anymore. Similarly, the nationalist narratives about Danish culture and identity have their own forms of censorship and control, perhaps more subtle than China’s but no less real in their impact.
The emergence of the Chinese AIi” DeepSeek captures something about this ambiguous position - developed for $6M rather than billions, open source rather than closed, yet still dependent on specially-made Chinese market NVIDIA GPUs. It represents both an alternative to and continuation of existing power structures. Its blatant censorship makes me more aware of the American systems' more sophisticated forms of control - not necessarily better, just more familiar, more aligned with the western norms I’ve internalized even while questioning them. Meanwhile, Danish nationalism’s insistence on cultural purity feels like another form of algorithmic control - trying to categorize and constrain identity into clean, manageable boxes.
The fact that DeepSeek requires specially-made Chinese market NVIDIA GPUs illustrates our current constraints - but also suggests they might be more flexible than we thought. Maybe we don’t need to fully escape these systems to create meaningful alternatives. Maybe it’s enough to find new ways to work within their limitations, to turn their constraints into opportunities for different kinds of development.
I’m not trying to escape bias anymore than I’m trying to escape society. Instead, I’m looking for ways to work within these systems while maintaining some critical distance. DeepSeek’s efficient development suggests possibilities for developing AI differently - not just using far fewer resources, but more diversely. Perhaps soon we’ll have not just American or Chinese biases to choose from, but a whole spectrum of cultural assumptions and approaches, each with their own limitations but also their own unique insights.
This approach means recognizing that while we’re shaped by systems we don’t fully endorse, we’re not entirely determined by them either. The question isn’t about acceptance or rejection, but about finding ways to exist and find sole degree of freedom in these in-between spaces, maintaining enough distance to think critically while remaining engaged enough to work for change. Like DeepSeek, it’s not about creating pure alternatives, but about expanding the possibilities of what can be done within compromised systems - whether those are technological, cultural, or institutional.
Finding some degree of freedom and beauty in the future might not be about escaping bias or censorship, but about having more choices about which biases and controls we want to work with and against. And in that multiplicity, in that expansion of possibilities, there might just be more space for local voices, alternative approaches, and different ways of thinking about what AI could be - even if each comes with its own forms of control and limitation. And that is probably as hopeful as I can be at the moment when it comes to our digital lives in a small country caught between global tech imperialism and an increasingly aggressive nationalism that seems just as intent on controlling how we think and create.
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