Steve and TP discuss the implications of the recent air battle between India and Pakistan, which involved over 100 fighter jets and took place entirely beyond visual range (BVR). What is sensor fusion, and have the Pakistanis achieved it with Chinese technology? Does the PL-15 outrange and outperform Western air-to-air missiles? What are the implications for US-China military competition?

Read TP Huang on X: https://x.com/tphuang

• (00:00) - GODZILLA IS DOWN! India-Pakistan Clash and Chinese Military Technology with TP Huang — #87
• (00:32) - Introduction to the India-Pakistan Conflict
• (02:15) - Details of the Air Battle
• (04:40) - Expert Analysis by TP Huang
• (08:34) - Analysis of Air Battle Tactics and Technology
• (12:40) - Role of Chinese Technology
• (16:13) - Implications for Future Warfare
• (25:23) - Indian and Pakistani Military Strategies
• (34:34) - Unexpected Aggression: India's Miscalculation
• (36:52) - Pakistan's Strategic Restraint
• (39:19) - The Rafale Controversy: A Deep Dive
• (43:08) - Electronic Warfare: Myths vs. Reality
• (52:31) - Future of Indian Air Force: Tough Choices Ahead

–

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 manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

Zihan Wang is an AI researcher at Northwestern University, where he works on vision-language models, robotics, and reinforcement learning. Previously, he interned at DeepSeek, contributing to projects like DeepSeek-V2.

Zihan's homepage: https://zihanwang314.github.io/

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:13) - Zihan's Background, CS and AI Research in China
• (11:09) - DeepSeek; Human capital flow from PRC to US
• (16:07) - DeepSeek, Open Source and AI Research
• (31:52) - Model Size and Performance Constraints
• (33:01) - Data Bottleneck in Pre-trained Models
• (34:12) - Transformer Architecture and Scaling Laws
• (36:30) - Efficiency in Model Training
• (47:44) - Chain of Experts Architecture
• (01:01:06) - Future of AI and Robotics

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

–

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 manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

Dan Collins is Founder of Tyrell Chemical. He studied at Tsinghua University and spent 20 years working for companies like General Motors in China, helping to localize automotive manufacturing. Dan and Steve discuss tariffs, deindustrialization in America, the Go-Go days of rapid economic growth in PRC, and the future of the US-China relationship.

Follow Dan on X: https://x.com/DanCollins2011

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:25) - Dan's Early Life and Education in Michigan
• (02:30) - Experiences in China, Tsinghua University
• (05:42) - China's Educational and Economic Transformation
• (14:39) - US-China Trade Relations and Joint Ventures
• (41:48) - China's Auto Market
• (42:38) - Weaponization of Customs and Nationalism
• (43:20) - Impact of Tariffs on US Manufacturing
• (44:28) - Chaos in Global Trade and Supply Chains
• (49:34) - The Golden Screw Theory and Manufacturing Dependence
• (51:50) - Strategies for Reindustrializing the US

–

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 manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on X @hsu_steve.