The Artificial Intelligence wars have begun.
China fired the first shot.
On Monday, $1 trillion in stock market value was wiped off the books of American tech companies after Chinese startup DeepSeek created an AI-tool that rivals the best that US firms have to offer – and at a fraction of the cost.
DeepSeek claims its engineers trained their AI-model with $6 million worth of computer chips, while leading AI-competitor, OpenAI, spent an estimated $3 billion training and developing its models in 2024 alone.
What's more, DeepSeek says they accomplished this feat with relatively dated technology. (US sanctions deny the Chinese the world's most advanced chip tech.)
That news landed on Wall Street like a ton of bricks. This is the first time that China has beaten the US to a major AI discovery.
It was nothing short of 'AI's Sputnik moment,' according to Marc Andreessen, one of the foremost tech investors in the world, a reference to October 4, 1957, the day the Soviet Union beat the US to launch the first satellite into space.
More than six decades ago, the American public was shocked that an adversarial nation had leapfrogged the US in the space race. Many were terrified by the thought that the Soviet Union – a communist regime with designs on global domination – would seize control of the skies above their heads.
So, is now a time to panic? No. By Tuesday, US technology markets were already clawing back some of the losses from yesterday's rout, as questions were raised over the veracity of DeepSeek's claims.
I also suspect that DeepSeek somehow managed to evade US sanctions and obtain the most advanced computer chips. If that's the case, then their progress is much more understandable.
However, America cannot ignore the threat of Chinese AI dominance.
In this day and age, artificial intelligence translates to military supremacy. Whoever commands the best AI will win wars in the future.
Right now, China may well come out on top. On Wednesday, the Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba released its AI-model and claimed it computing power surpassed even DeepSeek.
AI can be used to power autonomous weapon systems, command fleets of drones and detect, track, and engage enemy threats in real time. If China is able to create more intelligent, faster and cheaper AI models than the US, they can use that to develop more effective weapons too.
DeepSeek also poses an immediate national security risk to America.
On Monday it was the top download on Apple's store - shooting past OpenAI's ChatGPT - as thousands of Americans loaded it onto their phones.
The American people have to be on their guard. If you download the app, you better ask who's watching and who's listening. From what I can tell, it scrapes your emails and personal data.
1 comment:
Sound familiar? Operation Warp Speed. Videos originating from China of people dropping dead and hospitals filling up with people with respiratory viruses. Same play book. AI is the beast with many eyes to see, ears to listen, and appendages to reach out and touch. The truth and the Way is the only path to the Father. Do not be distracted or discouraged by all the noise. Remain focused on our Savior.
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