Remember the \u201cDeepSeek moment?\u201d The Chinese start-up announced in early 2025 that it had created an artificial intelligence model that could rival ChatGPT. Not only that, it had created it at a fraction of the cost of its American competitors.<\/p>\n
If China had been considered behind the United States on A.I., DeepSeek changed that<\/a>. Almost instantly, its model became the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Some in Silicon Valley started calling it \u201cA.I.\u2019s Sputnik moment.\u201d<\/p>\n DeepSeek released its latest model last week. Today, my colleague Meaghan Tobin, who covers technology in Asia, writes about how DeepSeek\u2019s models have not just put China and the U.S. neck and neck in the A.I. race \u2014 but revolutionized the nature of the race itself.<\/p>\n What DeepSeek really changed about the global A.I. race<\/p>\n By Meaghan Tobin<\/p>\n Early last year, the Chinese start-up Deep Seek sent tech stocks around the globe plummeting when it announced it had spent far less<\/a> on computer chips when building its new artificial intelligence models than American rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI. The DeepSeek moment, analysts thought at the time, heralded a major shift in the global tech landscape.<\/p>\n A little more than a year later \u2014 and in the aftermath of the release of DeepSeek\u2019s highly anticipated newest model late last month \u2014 it\u2019s clear that DeepSeek has indeed transformed the global tech landscape. It just hasn\u2019t been in the way analysts anticipated.<\/p>\n Instead of pushing A.I. companies to be more efficient with their computer chips, DeepSeek has revealed the benefits of making the details of this technology widely available to the public.<\/p>\n Until DeepSeek, the details of the world\u2019s top performing A.I. systems were, for the most part, closely held company secrets. DeepSeek, by contrast, published the details of its systems for anyone to use and build upon \u2014 a practice called open source.<\/p>\n In the months since, its models have become some of the most widely used open-source A.I. systems in the world. And the DeepSeek moment kicked off a surprising shift. While American companies have kept their best models closed, A.I. has become one area where China \u2014 a country known for its strict government controls on technology and information \u2014 has embraced openness<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Big Mac of A.I.<\/strong><\/p>\n Open source is an idea as old as the internet itself.<\/p>\n The top American A.I. companies say only a few people should be able to have access to the full details of a technology that has the potential to be extraordinarily powerful, even dangerous. But many proponents of open source argue that technology both improves more quickly, and is actually safer, when it is shared and transparent.<\/p>\n At first, many Chinese companies turned to open source because it was easier to build something on top of a foundation laid by others. But the competition to build the best A.I. quickly became a geopolitical struggle<\/a>. And Chinese officials began to see the open-source nature of their country\u2019s models as a potential soft-power win.<\/p>\n For developers and app builders around the globe, these models have made A.I. cheaper and more accessible. People working on building A.I. apps in Nigeria, Malaysia and Brazil \u2014 as well as the U.S. \u2014 have found that using Chinese models can be more than 90 percent cheaper than paying to build with, for example, OpenAI\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n China has put billions toward the goal of becoming an A.I. superpower. Being known as the birthplace of a popular, widely available A.I. system could help cement that image for people using the technology all over the world. One tech investor I spoke to likened the soft power of open-source A.I. to the impact of Hollywood movies and Big Macs.<\/p>\n In the months after the initial DeepSeek release, Chinese tech companies released dozens of other open-source models. By the end of last year, about a third of all global A.I. usage involved Chinese open-source models.<\/p>\n Not everyone is on board with using Chinese A.I. Government agencies in South Korea, Taiwan and Australia have told their employees not to use<\/a> DeepSeek\u2019s models over concerns about the company\u2019s approach to security and data protection.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI have accused DeepSeek of unfairly using their technology to build its own, and have framed the competition between American and Chinese A.I. companies as an ideological one. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said he wanted to \u201cmake sure democratic A.I. wins over authoritarian A.I.\u201d<\/p>\n But what might matter more to most users is affordable A.I.<\/p>\n Move fast, but obey the rules<\/strong><\/p>\n China\u2019s embrace of open source isn\u2019t as contradictory as it might seem. The technology might be open to everyone to develop, but it still has to abide by Chinese rules<\/a>. If anything, it\u2019s China\u2019s full-throated embrace of A.I. itself that contains contradictions.<\/p>\n The Chinese government wants cutting-edge A.I. But A.I. is also inherently unpredictable. It will be used in ways that people haven\u2019t even thought of yet. And China\u2019s leadership doesn\u2019t want new technology to disrupt the stability of Chinese society and the Communist Party\u2019s hold over it.<\/p>\n The government is pushing Chinese companies to do two things at once \u2014 move fast so China can outpace international rivals, while complying with an increasingly complex set of regulations. We\u2019ll find out if that eventually starts to hinder China in the global A.I. race.<\/p>\n While DeepSeek\u2019s latest model hasn\u2019t made as big of a splash as its earlier ones, it still performs well. It lags behind only the top models from OpenAI and Anthropic at writing computer code. And if the popularity of Chinese open-source models over the past year is any indication, maybe coders around the world don\u2019t feel as though they need the best. They just need good enough \u2014 and cheap enough.<\/p>\n Trump says the U.S. will help ships leave the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n President Trump announced yesterday that the U.S. will help guide stranded ships through the strait<\/a> in an initiative he called Project Freedom. Trump said the effort, which was to start this morning, came after his administration heard from countries seeking help freeing their ships. The president warned that any interference would be dealt with \u201cforcefully.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese are Ships from areas of the World that are not in any way involved with that which is currently taking place in the Middle East,\u201d Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s announcement was essentially a challenge to Iran: a bet that it would not want to take the risk of firing the first shots \u2014 or laying mines \u2014 in a challenge to the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n For more:<\/strong><\/p>\n At America\u2019s most famous horse race, the victory by Golden Tempo was definitely the highlight of the day, but the hats were a close second. Fascinators, fedoras, bowlers, boaters, flowers and feathers (so many feathers) created a kaleidoscope in the stands.<\/p>\n MORNING READ<\/strong><\/p>\n Balochistan, the poorest of Pakistan\u2019s four provinces, is home to the Reko Diq mine, which has one of the world\u2019s largest untapped reserves of gold and copper. The Trump administration has promised to invest $2 billion in the project.<\/p>\n But the U.S. plan in Pakistan could be derailed by attacks from one of South Asia\u2019s most lethal separatist groups: the Baloch Liberation Army, or B.L.A. The group is drawing support from young, educated Baloch who feel alienated by corruption and what they see as a lack of resources allocated to their region. Read more<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n AROUND THE WORLD<\/strong>Iceland\u2019s secret. For now.<\/p>\n The English gather in pubs, the Finns in saunas. For Icelanders, the social hub where people decompress is the pool or the hot tub. The country has roughly 150 pools, usually heated by geothermal energy, mostly outdoors and open all year long. And mostly out of sight of tourists. Until now.<\/p>\n Ever since UNESCO honored Icelandic pool culture as \u201cintangible cultural heritage\u201d late last year, some Icelanders worry that hordes of visitors are coming for their peace and quiet. Dive into the full story<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n