DeepSeek AI Sparks Global Reactions: Innovation, Competition, and Controversy
The release of DeepSeek AI’s R1 model has sent ripples across the AI industry, prompting a wave of reactions from global leaders in technology, business, and politics. From praise for its affordability to concerns about export controls and open-source dominance, this groundbreaking model has become a flashpoint in the ongoing AI race between China and the United States. Here's what key figures and organizations had to say.
President Trump
President Trump described the release of DeepSeek AI by a Chinese company as a "wake-up call" for U.S. industries, emphasizing the need to outcompete global rivals and praising American scientists as "the most brilliant in the world." He framed the development as a positive, suggesting it could drive cost-effective innovation, and vowed to unleash U.S. tech companies to "dominate the future."
Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO)
DeepSeek's R1 is an impressive model, particularly for its affordability. While acknowledging the competition, Altman expressed excitement, emphasizing OpenAI's focus on delivering superior models and the importance of compute in achieving their mission.
NVIDIA Statement
NVIDIA praised DeepSeek’s R1 as an excellent example of Test Time Scaling, leveraging widely available models and export-compliant compute. The company highlighted that R1's inference relies heavily on NVIDIA GPUs, introducing a third scaling law alongside pre-training and post-training.
Alexandr Wang (Scale AI CEO)
Wang noted that DeepSeek likely utilizes approximately 50,000 Nvidia H100 chips, though export controls prevent the company from openly acknowledging this.
Elon Musk
Musk concurred with Wang’s assessment, stating that DeepSeek “obviously” operates with around 50,000 H100 chips, sidestepping U.S. export restrictions.
Yann LeCun (Meta’s Chief AI Scientist)
LeCun framed the success of DeepSeek's open-source approach as evidence of its superiority over closed AI systems, dismissing concerns about China surpassing the U.S. in AI.
Chinese Reaction
Chinese outlets celebrated DeepSeek’s release as a significant victory, claiming it symbolizes China's growing dominance in AI innovation and its ability to challenge U.S. technological leadership.