#59 – Chris Miller on the History of Semiconductors, TSMC, and the CHIPS Act

Chris Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University and author of the book “Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology” (the Financial Times Business Book of the Year). He is also a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
Over the next few episodes we will be exploring the potential for catastrophe cause by advanced artificial intelligence. But before we look ahead, we wanted to give a primer on where we are today: on the history and trends behind the development of AI so far. In this episode, we discuss:

How semiconductors have historically been related to US military strategy
How the Taiwanese company TSMC became such an important player in this space — while other countries’ attempts have failed
What the CHIPS Act signals about attitudes to compute governance in the decade ahead

Further reading is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/miller
If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!