In the heated global competition for artificial intelligence (AI) technology, a Chinese enterprise known as DeepSeek has emerged as a formidable playerBy achieving remarkable results, DeepSeek has challenged the United States' monopoly on discourse in this field, securing a place for China in the international AI marketThis development has sparked widespread attention and profound discussions around the world.

Last month, the release of DeepSeek-R1, China's generative AI model, sent shockwaves through the tech communityThis model is not only free to use but is also open source, combining low costs with accessibility, thereby greatly facilitating the proliferation of AI technologyDevelopers from various countries, particularly those outside the US, can now easily enter the fieldIn stark contrast to the barriers set by American companies against their competitors, China has embraced a more open approach to advancing AI technology, creating a striking irony.

The emergence of DeepSeek-R1 is significant for numerous reasonsIt has ripped apart the long-held veil of mystery shrouding AI technologyIn Silicon Valley, AI has often been portrayed as a precious and miraculous achievement, imbued with almost magical capabilities, suggesting that "general artificial intelligence" is within reachA prediction from the previous April posited that by the end of 2025, AI would "be smarter than any human." Such assertions are more politically and economically motivated than accurately representative of technological feasibilityWhile AI technologies have shown great success in specific areas, such as solving complex mathematical challenges and diagnosing diseases, their business models often rely on hypeThis hype draws immense investments and garners political influence

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However, DeepSeek-R1's disruptive nature challenges this "miracle through large investment" approach, proving that the best generative AI models can be realized with minimal computational resources and funding, thereby reshaping perceptions of AI development.

Just before the Spring Festival, DeepSeek launched its open-source model DeepSeek-R1, achieving performance levels nearly comparable to the GPT-01 model developed by OpenAI—all at a significantly lower costThis accomplishment quickly drew global attentionWithin days, DeepSeek topped the free app charts on both the Chinese and US Apple App Stores, with its application downloaded 16 million times within 18 days—almost double the 9 million downloads recorded when OpenAI's ChatGPT was first releasedBy February 4, 2025, the model boasted over 20 million daily active users, emerging as the fastest-growing AI application globallyThese figures vividly reflect DeepSeek's popularity and immense influence around the world.

Numerous tech giants have also announced their integration of the DeepSeek model, underscoring its important position in the international marketNotable companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIA, along with Chinese cloud platforms like JD.com, Alibaba, ByteDance, Baidu, and Huawei, have all started incorporating DeepSeek into their platformsAmazon indicated that the DeepSeek-R1 model is now available on Amazon Web Services, with CEO Andy Jassy encouraging users to “make full use of it.” NVIDIA has also publicized DeepSeek-R1 as part of its NIM microservice preview, highlighting that the model provides “state-of-the-art inference capability,” “high inference efficiency,” and “leading accuracy.” Similarly, major Chinese cloud platforms have actively integrated DeepSeek, offering users diverse deployment and usage options.

Furthermore, DeepSeek's achievements have garnered significant attention and commendation from international peers and various government officials

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The President of the United States remarked that DeepSeek has sounded an “alarm bell” for the American AI industry, describing the market upheaval as “positive” for Silicon Valley as it compels innovation at a lower costSam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledged DeepSeek as “undoubtedly an impressive model” and expressed his pleasure at welcoming new competitionRussia's Foreign Minister Lavrov noted that the achievements of Chinese scientists in AI, including DeepSeek, exceed those of their American counterpartsIndia's Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics, and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, also lauded DeepSeek for shaking up the industry with its low-cost AI model.

However, the success of DeepSeek has also sparked controversy and concernWestern media speculate on how this achievement occurred under the stringent US chip export restrictions imposed on China, while others have characterized it as the "Sputnik moment" of AI, suggesting it poses a challenge to American supremacyTexas has even become the first state in the US to ban the use of DeepSeek on government-issued devices, but this ban has quickly faced backlash from many American usersOne Texas resident critiqued the move, asserting that DeepSeek represents the best AI currently available and labeled the ban as ignorant and shortsighted.

China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Fu Cong, emphasized while discussing DeepSeek, “Never underestimate the ingenuity of Chinese researchersThe global uproar surrounding DeepSeek and the anxiety it has caused in some quarters indicate that technical restrictions and limitations cannot succeedThis is a lesson that particularly the United States needs to learn.” He further pointed out that China and the United States, being the leading nations in the AI field today, must learn to collaborate

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Only through joint efforts can the digital and intelligence divides be bridged, allowing the global south to equally benefit from developments in AI.

The advent of DeepSeek has not only boosted the morale of Chinese researchers and tech companies but has also altered economists’ and investors’ perceptions of China's innovative capabilitiesReports from Reuters indicate that DeepSeek's launch is reshaping the AI landscape, enabling companies to harness this technology at remarkably low costs and potentially prompting other AI firms to enhance their models and reduce pricingAnalysts at Bernstein Research in America estimate that DeepSeek’s pricing is only about 1/40 to 1/20 of that of OpenAI’s competing modelsUlrik, the CEO of Denmark's Empatik AI, noted, “This shows that we can achieve our vision without massive budgets.” Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO of the Dutch AI startup Axelera AI, remarked, “By making models easier to use for everyone and lowering the overall ownership costs along with the barriers to building innovative technology, this could become a catalyst for the entire industry.” The Chief Business Officer of British AI company NetMind.AI, Sina Regar, observed, “This marks a significant advance towards the democratization of AI and fair competition with large tech firms.”

Through its technological strength and innovative achievements, DeepSeek has gained China a voice in the international AI market, breaking the long-standing monopoly held by the United StatesThis represents not only an important milestone in the development of AI technology in China, but also injects new vitality and momentum into the advancement of AI technologies worldwideAs DeepSeek continues to evolve and be utilized, it is believed that China will achieve even more remarkable accomplishments in the field of AI, contributing significantly to global technological progress.

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