VIDEO: How China’s new AI model DeepSeek is threatening U.S. dominance

(VIDEO BELOW) SWJ is monitoring the evolution of DeepSeek and will continue to analyze this emerging story. We need to look at this from all angles, as China has been known to exaggerate advancements for strategic advantages.
In a recent CNBC video titled “How China’s New AI Model DeepSeek Is Threatening US Dominance,” the emergence of DeepSeek’s latest AI model, DeepSeek-R1, is examined as a significant development in the global AI landscape. DeepSeek, a Chinese startup that evolved from the hedge fund High-Flyer, has focused on artificial general intelligence research.
In response to U.S. export controls, the company adopted innovative development strategies, emphasizing software-driven resource optimization and unique model architectures. This approach allowed them to achieve significant advancements with limited resources. Notably, DeepSeek chose to open-source their model under the MIT license, promoting collaborative innovation and potentially challenging current U.S. AI export limitations. The DeepSeek-R1 model employs reinforcement learning techniques, enabling advanced reasoning capabilities without supervised data, leading to performance levels comparable to leading Western models. These developments highlight China’s potential to rival Silicon Valley in AI advancements and raise questions about the future balance of power in the AI sector.
Key Highlights from the Video:
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DeepSeek’s Background and Evolution:
- Originally part of the hedge fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek transitioned into an independent entity focusing on artificial general intelligence research. This shift underscores China’s commitment to advancing its AI capabilities.
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Innovative Development Strategies:
- Facing U.S. export controls, DeepSeek adopted unique approaches to AI development. Instead of relying on extensive hardware, they emphasized software-driven resource optimization and innovative model architectures, enabling them to achieve significant advancements with limited resources (supposedly).
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Open-Source Approach:
- DeepSeek’s decision to open-source their model under the MIT license allows for free commercial and academic use. This move contrasts with the proprietary models of Western counterparts and fosters collaborative innovation, potentially challenging current U.S. AI export limitations and being a Trojan Horse of some kind.
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Performance and Efficiency:
- The DeepSeek-R1 model employs reinforcement learning techniques, enabling it to develop advanced reasoning capabilities without supervised data. This approach has led to performance levels comparable to leading models from Western companies like OpenAI, despite DeepSeek’s more limited resources.
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Strategic Implications:
- DeepSeek’s advancements highlight China’s potential to rival Silicon Valley in AI developments. The success of DeepSeek-R1 underscores the effectiveness of alternative development strategies and raises questions about the future balance of power in the AI sector.
“DeepSeek started building on the existing frontier of AI. It’s approach focusing on iterating on existing technology rather than reinventing the wheel. It can take a really good big model and use a process called distillation. What distillation is basically you use a very large model to help your small model get smart at the thing you want it to get smart at; that is very cost efficient. It closed the gap by using available datasets, applying innovative tweaks, and leveraging existing models. So much so that DeepSeek’s model has run into an identity crisis. It is convinced that it is ChatGPT.
When you ask it, What model are you? DeepSeek responds with ‘I am an AI language model called ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI. Specfically, I’m based on the GPT-4 architecture. My purpose is to assist with answering questions, generating text, and helping with a wide range of tasks by understanding and processing natural language. Let me know how I can assist you!’ Leading Open AI’s Sam Altman to post ‘It is (relatively) easy to copy something you know works. It is extremely hard to do something new, risky, and difficult when you don’t know if it will work. Individual researchers rightly get a lot of glory for that when they do it! It’s the coolest thing in the world.’ But that is not exactly what DeepSeek did. It emulated ChatGPT by leveraging OpenAI’s existing outputs and architecture principles, while quietly introducing its own enhancements- really blurring the line between itself and ChatGPT.”
This CNBC video provides an in-depth analysis of these developments, offering insights into how DeepSeek’s strategies and innovations are influencing the global AI race. For a deeper dive into the strategic implications of DeepSeek’s advancements and their potential impact on U.S. AI dominance, this video is a valuable resource. Click here if the video is asking you to sign in. We recommend signing in so you can easily view all our videos on our site.