The talk of the town is artificial intelligence (AI).
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has sent ripples through the technology world by
beating OpenAI’s ChatGPT to become the most downloaded free app on the Apple
App Store in the United States. Wall Street received a major shock earlier this
week following the launch of DeepSeek’s AI model, R1, as Nvidia (NVDA) stock
plummeted 17% on Monday, wiping nearly $600 billion in market value. The tech
stocks may have recovered since but it is clear by now that more disruptive
forces could be in the offing as competition in the AI sector intensifies. What
caught the attention of the global community was the cost, as the new kid on
the block (DeepSeek R1) was reportedly developed for less than $6 million in
just two months, which is just a fraction of the budget used by the US-based
software giants and AI firms. On top of that, the Chinese startup claimed that
the performance of its flagship AI is comparable with other competitors. This
triggered a stock selloff on Monday and prompted US President Donald Trump to
ask tech giants in the country to take the emergence of Chinese companies in
the AI sector as a wakeup call and take note of the cost.
Well, it’s not just a wakeup call for American technology
companies but for all AI firms across the world- to adopt a cost-effective
approach as competition is only expected to heat up from here. This is evident
from the claim made by Alibaba that its newly launched AI model, Qwen2.5 Max,
performs better than its rivals DeepSeek’s R1, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Meta’s
Llama 3.1. The new trend will change the global technology landscape as well as
the course of innovation. AI startups, including those from India, can learn a
lesson or two from DeepSeek and take inspiration from its success. It should
push tech firms to rethink spending, as cost matters at the end of the day.
AI may be like a double-edged sword with its pros and cons,
like any other technological innovations but it will become an integral part of
our everyday life eventually. This is undeniable. While there are rooms for
concern, including privacy, job loss, disinformation, etc., the benefit we can
draw from AI is immense- from getting repetitive tasks done in no time to data
acquisition and analysis. So, the key is to use it responsibly. After all, it
is just a tool to augment human intelligence and capabilities, not to replace
it.
