From the US perspective, the DeepSeek phenomenon has set strategic alarm bells ringing. While it weakens US sanctions aimed at restricting China’s AI advancement, it emboldens emerging economies (this includes economies in the ASEAN region) to bypass US-based AI monopolies. 

A relatively unknown Chinese company recently unveiled DeepSeek, an open-source and cost-effective AI large language model (LLM). The release has signalled a significant shift in the global AI landscape as it has directly challenged the entrenched dominance of US-based AI giants such as OpenAI (GPT), Meta (Llama) and Google (Gemini). 

Developing a unique AI model is costly, especially if model is training from scratch. The costs depend on various factors such as infrastructure, data collection, training duration, fine-tuning, and deployment. DeepSeek has also demonstrated successfully that with proper management high-caliber AI models can be developed at a fraction of the traditional costs. 

The release of DeepSeek caused tremors in the US Stock market. Nvidia, a leading AI chip manufacturer experienced a record one-day loss of over $500 billion in market value. The fear was that DeepSeek’s low-cost AI models might reduce the demand for high-end GPUs. Other major tech firms, including Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Meta, also saw steep decline in their stock........

© Eurasia Review