Disruptive Innovation: DeepSeek's Foray into the American AI Market

The tech landscape is buzzing with the introduction of a new player from China - DeepSeek. Making considerable strides in artificial intelligence, DeepSeek has crafted super-intelligent computer programs that have the ability to answer queries and even craft stories. These impressive capabilities are reminiscent of those seen in ChatGPT. However, what sets DeepSeek apart is their ability to deliver high performance at a significantly lower cost. This potent combination has sent ripples through the industry. Their revolutionary app, DeepSeek-R1, has been creating a stir, quickly surpassing even ChatGPT in popularity within the U.S.!

A good friend sent me an request for my thoughts on this topic so I compiled this post from my notes and thoughts. I parsed out the original query into these prompts:

• Why is DeepSeek gaining interest in the U.S.?
• What are the geopolitical implications of China releasing a free AI model?
• Is China strategically improving on existing models by learning from others' mistakes?
• Does global adoption of a "free" model benefit China's AI race?
• Why don’t U.S. lawmakers seem to grasp the risks, given their past concerns about TikTok?

This is still a developing story, and we won’t truly know its full impact for some time. While I have some ideas percolating about what this might mean for the AI landscape, I’ll refrain from making any firm conclusions in this post. Instead, I’ve focused on laying out what’s happening, breaking things into digestible chunks, and providing some key takeaways along the way to help make sense of it all. Throughout, I’ve linked to some sources that offer corroborating evidence for my thinking, but this is by no means exhaustive—and history may prove some of these interpretations wrong.

Why is it a big deal that China is giving away this AI for free?

DeepSeek decided to give their AI models away for free, and that's a strategic move with major implications. Here's what it could mean:

• Challenging the U.S.: By offering a free, high-quality AI, DeepSeek is competing directly with similar AI programs in the U.S. This could shift power in the AI world toward China.
• Data Collection: Because the AI is free, lots of people might use it, and that makes some people nervous. They're worried that DeepSeek might be collecting user data, and the Chinese government might access that information.
• Creating Dependency: If developers start relying on DeepSeek’s tools to build their apps, China could gain control over how AI is built and used in the future.
• Setting the Rules: DeepSeek’s free AI could become so popular that it becomes the standard way to do things in the AI world. This could give China a lot of power and influence.
• Economic Impact: By offering a free option, DeepSeek is making it harder for Western companies to compete and may gain more market power for China.

TLDR: China's free AI is significant as it challenges the dominance of US companies in AI technology, collects valuable user data, and could set global AI standards and usage. Essentially, China is aiming to establish itself as a technological leader and potentially influence the future of AI application.

Is China Getting a Head Start By Using What Others Have Already Created?

Yes, it seems China is being smart about how they are approaching the AI race. They are:

• Building on Existing Work: DeepSeek appears to be using existing research and open-source resources to create their models, making their development process more efficient. This is like building a house using the best parts of other people’s houses, rather than starting from scratch.
• Saving Resources: DeepSeek is getting the same results as other companies but with less money and fewer resources. It’s like winning a race without needing the most expensive running shoes.
• Learning from Users: By giving away their AI for free, DeepSeek is getting feedback and data from all over the world. This helps them improve their models based on how people use them.
• Getting Ahead by Being Open: Because their models are open source, other people can add to them which helps accelerate their refinement and widespread adoption, and this becomes an advantage in the global AI race.

TLDR: China's firm, DeepSeek, is smartly advancing in the AI race by using existing research and cost-effective methods to develop their AI models. They're also encouraging global collaboration by making their AI free and open-source, gaining valuable user feedback to improve their technology. This approach is challenging traditional strategies in the AI field and shows innovation can thrive despite limitations.

How Does China Benefit from Everyone Using Their Free AI?

When lots of people around the world use DeepSeek’s free AI, it can help China in a number of ways:

• More Users: They gain many users worldwide for their AI tools by offering it for free. This helps to integrate Chinese tech into the global landscape.
• Improving Their AI: When many people use their AI, DeepSeek gets data that they can use to refine their models and make them more useful.
• Controlling the Future of AI: If everyone depends on DeepSeek, China can gain influence over the future of AI technology, including its rules and how it works.
• Data Collection: The free access raises concerns about how DeepSeek might collect data and what the Chinese government might do with it.
• Becoming the Standard: If DeepSeek's models are used as a foundation, they could establish the standard way that AI is built. This gives China long-term influence over the industry.

TLDR China is benefiting from offering free AI by attracting a large user base, refining their technology based on user feedback, potentially setting global AI standards, collecting valuable data, creating dependency on their tools, and challenging major tech companies. This strategy could position China as a leading power in the AI industry.

Why Don't U.S. Lawmakers See the Risks with DeepSeek?

U.S. lawmakers might not be as worried about DeepSeek as they were about TikTok. Here’s why:

• TikTok was Easier to Understand: TikTok was all about data collection and controlling the content that people see, which was easy for lawmakers to grasp. DeepSeek’s risks are more about long-term control of AI infrastructure, which is harder to understand.
• AI is Complex: AI is complicated, and it's hard to see how things like DeepSeek’s open-source strategy could lead to long-term risks. Lawmakers may not have enough experts to explain all this.
• Focusing on Immediate Threats: Lawmakers are often more concerned with immediate threats, like what data is being collected, rather than long-term risks, like who controls the infrastructure.
• Long-Term vs. Short-Term Concerns: TikTok’s risks were easy to see and act on, but DeepSeek’s impact might take years to appear. For example, if DeepSeek's models become the foundation for AI projects, China could set the rules, control the output, and gain long-term power.
• Economic Asymmetry: The availability of cheap AI models from DeepSeek could weaken Western AI companies, giving China more market power, but this is a less obvious risk than data collection and control of content.
• Ecosystem Lock-In: Lawmakers may not see that China is trying to create a system where developers around the world depend on DeepSeek, similar to how we all rely on certain phone or computer systems. This type of long-term reliance is difficult to see and understand.

TLDR U.S. lawmakers may be overlooking the risks of DeepSeek due to its less conspicuous nature compared to apps like TikTok, and the complexity of AI technology. Their focus on immediate issues and unfamiliarity with the long-term implications and control over future technology might also contribute to this oversight. Essentially, the potential problems with DeepSeek are more subtle and future-oriented, making them harder for lawmakers used to dealing with immediate, visible issues to detect.

A Broader Perspective on the DeepSeek Situation

As we wrap up this discussion, it's crucial to step back and consider the bigger picture surrounding DeepSeek and the current state of AI development.

Beyond the TikTok Comparison
The comparison between DeepSeek and TikTok is fundamentally flawed. While TikTok raised concerns about social media data collection, DeepSeek represents a much deeper issue: the future direction of AI models and the competition between open and closed approaches in the field.

A More Apt Analogy
Instead of comparing DeepSeek to social media platforms, we should be looking at it alongside other open AI initiatives like Hugging Face and Meta's LLaMA. These open-source projects are challenging the dominance of proprietary models from companies like OpenAI, and DeepSeek fits into this broader narrative.

The Current State of AI Development
Today's AI race is largely defined by hardware capabilities and financial resources. Companies are vying for NVIDIA GPUs and pouring billions into AI chips and data centers. This approach has led to impressive advancements but also raises significant concerns:

• Astronomical Costs: Training large language models like GPT-3 can cost millions in compute alone, creating a high barrier to entry.
• Environmental Impact: The energy consumption of AI training is staggering, with some models having carbon footprints equivalent to multiple cars over their lifetimes.
• Sustainability Questions: As AI models grow larger, the environmental cost of training and running them becomes increasingly concerning.

Challenging the Status Quo
DeepSeek's approach of achieving impressive results with significantly less compute power challenges the assumption that more resources always lead to better AI. This opens up important questions about the future of AI development:

• Can innovation in algorithms and training methods outweigh raw computing power?
• How can we make AI development more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
• Is there a way to democratize AI and reduce the need for every company to train massive models from scratch?

The Path Forward
As the field evolves, we may see a shift towards approaches that balance performance with environmental and accessibility concerns. Open-source platforms and more efficient training methods could play a crucial role in this transition.

Conclusion

DeepSeek is a big deal in the world of AI. While it offers some exciting possibilities, there are also valid concerns about data security, geopolitical influence, and economic power. It’s important to be aware of who is building the tools that are shaping the future of AI and for the U.S. to invest in its own AI innovation.

The DeepSeek situation is far more complex than a simple data privacy issue. It challenges us to reconsider our assumptions about AI development and to think critically about the long-term implications of different approaches to advancing AI technology. As we move forward, it's crucial that we consider not just the capabilities of AI, but also its costs - both financial and environmental - and its accessibility to a broader range of researchers and developers.

In the end, the real innovation in AI might not come from who can throw the most resources at the problem, but from those who find smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable paths forward.

Simplify

Chinese tech firm, DeepSeek, has made waves in the AI industry by offering its advanced AI models for free, challenging U.S. dominance in the sector. The company's strategy of building on existing research and using open-source resources has raised concerns about data privacy, geopolitical influence and economic power. However, U.S. lawmakers seemingly overlook these risks due to the complexity of AI and their focus on immediate threats. Amidst these concerns, DeepSeek's approach also prompts a re-evaluation of AI development towards more efficient and sustainable practices.

can you create a viral worthy tweet about this post?

"🔥 China's #DeepSeek is shaking up the #AI world with FREE advanced models! It's time to rethink everything we know about AI development. Are we ready for the changing landscape?🤔💡#ArtificialIntelligence #TechInnovation #FutureIsHere 🌐💻"

can you explain this post like I;m a middle schooler?

China has a tech company called DeepSeek that's making really smart computer programs and giving them away for free. This is like if someone suddenly started giving out really cool video games for free. It's making American tech companies a little nervous because they're worried about how good the free games are and whether people might like them more than their own stuff.

People are also worried that DeepSeek is collecting information about everyone who uses their programs, kind of like if someone was watching you while you played those free video games and learning all your strategies. Plus, because everyone might start using these free programs, it could give China a lot of control over what happens next in the tech world.

Some people in America should be worried, but they aren't noticing all this because it's not as easy to see as when an app collects your data. It's more about who gets to decide how computer programs are made in the future.

The cool thing is, DeepSeek is also showing us that we don't need to spend loads of money or use lots of power to make good computer programs. This could help us make things more fair and better for our planet!