Can the US Keep Up with DeepSeek?
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AI: The Next Transformation

Can the US Keep Up with DeepSeek?

/ Guide & Reference

The science behind the foundation models underpinning generative AI assistants has been around for 15 years, but the explosion of recent providers has been fueled by three interdependent factors:

The science behind the foundation models underpinning generative AI assistants has been around for 15 years, but the explosion of recent providers has been fueled by three interdependent factors:

  • Natural language interfaces that allow us to ask a computer to complete a task without our having to be coders or programmers;
  • Data repositories that are enormous, accessible, connected, and easily manipulated; and
  • Computer power, especially chips, that allows us to process billions of actions in a fraction of a second.

That last aspect has been a factor in the race between the US and China for AI supremacy as the previous administration ramped up restrictions on the export of advanced chips and other technology to China.

In media interviews, DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng described this “chip ban” as the major challenge to developing his company’s model—but it was a challenge his team claims to have overcome.

Leading AI models in the West are trained using an estimated 16,000 specialized chips, but DeepSeek says its model was trained using 2,000 high-performance chips and thousands of lower-grade chips. This training was

Author

Ivan Pollard

Ivan Pollard Ivan Pollard

Marketing & Communications Center Leader
The Conference Board

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