China’s new AI model, DeepSeek has become a tech phenomenon within days of releasing V3. Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Bank, thinks it’s a wake-up call for the rest of the world. DeepSeek has quickly climbed to the #1 spot on Apple’s App Store, beating big names like ChatGPT, and Kotak believes this is a sign that other countries need to up their game.
In a tweet, Kotak said DeepSeek shows how China is getting serious about challenging US dominance in the AI space. He didn’t mince words, calling for other aspiring nations to step in and compete.
“China intensifies the global tech race with DeepSeek to challenge US supremacy in the AI world. It has topped Apple App Store rankings. As the race to the top progresses, it is time other aspiring countries step up the game,” he wrote.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek isn’t just another AI company—it’s a serious competitor to ChatGPT's creator OpenAI and other popular tools. The Chinese startup's AI model is being praised for solving complex tasks like coding and maths while costing less to run. On top of that, smaller versions of the model have been made open-source, meaning developers and researchers around the world can use them.
Its rise to the top of the App Store highlights China’s growing influence in AI. This is especially impressive given the hurdles Chinese companies face, like US export restrictions on advanced chips. Despite those challenges, DeepSeek is proving that innovation can come from anywhere.
Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, took to X (formerly Twitter) to offer his take, pushing back against the idea that this is about China overtaking the US in AI.
“To people who see the performance of DeepSeek and think: ‘China is surpassing the US in AI.’ You are reading this wrong,” LeCun wrote. “The correct reading is: ‘Open-source models are surpassing proprietary ones.’”
LeCun praised DeepSeek for building on open-source technologies like Meta’s own PyTorch and LLaMA, emphasising how open research benefits the entire AI community.
On the flip side, Neal Khosla, CEO of Curai, had a more suspicious view of DeepSeek’s rise. He claimed it might be part of a geopolitical strategy. He said, "Deepseek is a ccp state psyop + economic warfare to make American ai unprofitable they are faking the cost was low to justify setting price low and hoping everyone switches to it damage AI competitiveness in the US. Don't take the bait."
Khosla’s post, however, didn’t go unchallenged. A Community Note attached to his tweet pointed out that he provided no evidence for his claim. The note also highlighted that his father, Vinod Khosla, is an investor in OpenAI, raising questions about his motives.