The release of DeepSeek R1, a generative AI model from a Chinese company in January 2025, has set America's tech and tech-adjacent circles ablaze with hot takes on the future of the nation’s technological hegemony. These shifting policies reveal not only the biases within AI models—including those developed domestically—but also how access to information can be shaped by the opaque, often undemocratic decisions of both authoritarian governments and private corporations.