The rise of former Google CEO DeepSeek marks a new stage in the global AI competition

In a recent column, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged the U.S. government and the private sector to increase investment in open source artificial intelligence (AI) research and development, saying this is crucial to cope with the rise of Chinese AI company DeepSeek.

Schmidt believes that DeepSeek's rapid rise marks a turning point in global AI competition, especially in China challenging large US technology companies with relatively few resources. He stressed that despite the outstanding performance of DeepSeek's technology, the real reason for its success is not only its advanced technology, but also its open source strategy - a strategy that allows more developers and AI teams to develop multiple applications based on state-of-the-art models.

The Rise of DeepSeek and Open Source Strategy

DeepSeek's open source AI model, especially its DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, has already matched OpenAI's GPT-4o and o1 models in multiple benchmarks, and its operating cost is only about one-tenth of the latter. Zheng Weimin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University, said that the reasons for the success of DeepSeek can be attributed to three aspects: strong technical capabilities, low costs and its open source strategy.

By opening up these powerful AI models, DeepSeek not only promotes the popularization of technology, but also provides global AI teams with powerful R&D tools, promoting the emergence of more innovative applications. This strategy is changing the competitive landscape in the AI ​​field and putting huge pressure on the United States and its tech giants.

Schmidt's response and future actions in the United States

Schmidt pointed out that in order to fight DeepSeek and regain the leading position of AI technology, the United States needs to increase its investment in R&D in open source AI models. He suggested that the U.S. government should invest more resources to build AI infrastructure, especially innovative platforms like Stargate, and encourage top labs to share their training methods and techniques. Schmidt stressed that such open source cooperation will promote the wider popularity of AI technology and help the United States stay ahead of its AI competition in the future.

AI open source and technology democratization

Schmidt also mentioned that open source can not only promote technological progress, but also promote the democratization of technology. Through open access and sharing of state-of-the-art models, developers are free to customize and innovate, which provides unlimited possibilities for the widespread use of AI technology.

Summary and prospect

The rise of DeepSeek and its open source strategy have brought far-reaching impacts to the field of AI and have inspired innovative motivation for developers around the world. At the same time, it also made the United States realize that open cooperation and shared resources will play a crucial role in the future competition for AI technology.