Chuck Darwin<p>A larger question is whether this is what Grothendieck would have wanted. </p><p>In 1972, during his ecologist phase, <br>concerned that capitalist society was driving humanity towards ruin, <br>he gave a talk at CERN, near Geneva, <br>entitled<br> "Can We Continue Scientific Research?"</p><p>He didn’t know about AI <br>– but he was already opposed to this collusion between science and corporate industry. </p><p>Considering his pacifist values, he would probably also have been opposed to Huawei’s championing of his work; <br>-- its chief executive, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Ren" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ren</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Zhengfei" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Zhengfei</span></a>, is a former member of the People’s Liberation Army engineering corps. </p><p>The US department of defense, <br>as well as some independent researchers, <br>believes Huawei is controlled by the Chinese military.</p><p>Huawei insists it is a private company, <br>owned by its employees and its founding chairman, <br>Ren Zhengfei, <br>and that it is “not owned, controlled or affiliated to any government or third-party company”.</p><p>Lafforgue points out that France’s IHES, <br>where Grothendieck and later he worked, <br>was funded by industrial companies<br> – and thinks Huawei’s interest is legitimate. </p><p>Caramello, who is the founder and president of the Grothendieck Institute research organisation, <br>believes that he would have wanted a systematic exploration of his concepts to bring them to fruition. </p><p>“Topos theory is itself a kind of machine that can extend our imagination,” she says. </p><p>“So you see Grothendieck was not against the use of machines. </p><p>He was against blind machines, or brute force.” </p><p>What is unsettling is a degree of opaqueness about Huawei’s aims regarding AI and its collaborations, <br>including its relationship with the Grothendieck Institute, <br>where Lafforgue sits on the scientific council. </p><p>But Caramello stresses that it is an entirely independent body that engages in theoretical, <br>not applied research, <br>and that makes its findings available to all. </p><p>She says it does not research AI and that Lafforgue’s involvement pertains solely to his expertise in Grothendieckian maths.</p><p> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Huawei" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Huawei</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/topos" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>topos</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Olivia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Olivia</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Caramello" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Caramello</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Grothendieck" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Grothendieck</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Laurent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Laurent</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lafforgue" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lafforgue</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Pierre" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pierre</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Cartier" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cartier</span></a></p>