Artificial intelligence promises to bring the world to our fingertips, offering answers with unprecedented speed and precision. Tools like China’s DeepSeek AI claim to represent the next frontier of this technology—streamlined, efficient, and capable of understanding complex questions. But from my own experience, the reality of DeepSeek AI is far more troubling. It’s not just what the platform says but what it refuses to say that should give us pause.

This is precisely what ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia would represent on the global stage. Ukraine is not just fighting for its land—it is fighting for the principle that borders cannot be redrawn by force. Allowing Russia to annex portions of Ukraine sends a dangerous message: that might makes right, and that sovereignty and territorial integrity are negotiable.

Ambiguity in a world with leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) will inevitably lead to them bringing their version of certainty to the conflicts and regions filled with ambiguity — and it is critical that democratic nations around the world not allow this to happen. Certainty, where and when there is none, must be defined by democratic nations, and not those whose interests are counter to freedom, fairness and human rights.