The AI Disruption

China's DeepSeek has disrupted the AI space forcing mega tech companies to take notice; what lies ahead?

- SHUTAPA PAUL

China has upped the ante again, and this time against the world's biggest tech giants. Accompanied by global drama and thrill, Chinese Artificial Intelligence (AI) DeepSeek has left US tech companies in a tizzy and stocks crumbling. A disruptive AI model built at a fraction of the cost, proving that when they are denied something, they can and will do exactly the opposite to prove a point. Termed the "Sputnik Moment" and called "impressive", DeepSeek has democratised AI, possibly heralding an age where leaner and more efficient AI models would be not just an aspiration but the norm.

DeepSeek claims to have been built as a side project with a budget of under USD 6 million; compared to the billions of dollars spent by US technology companies. The DeepSeek model has also been trained using older chips since they did not have access to the latest ones, and the DeepSeek R1 surpasses models developed by OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Anthropic. While there are already allegations of censorship practised by the app, no one can take away from the brilliance of what has been built. Given the meagre resources, we can't help but appreciate the implications and impact of DeepSeek.