DeepSeek isn’t a threat – it is a moment for AI advancement
By Daniel Lee | February 14Within just a few weeks of its arrival, China’s latest reasoning model DeepSeek R1 sent the stock prices of American tech companies plummeting. Investor Marc Andreessen described it as “AI’s Sputnik moment,” considering the new AI model — developed by the new Chinese startup company — shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street. This new model is said to be capable of performance equal to that technology of more prominent AI companies such as OpenAI and MetaAI at a fraction of the cost of its competitors. People interpreting Andreessen’s comment as a wake-up call for drastic change might be extrapolating from history — if Sputnik sparked national mobilization, why wouldn’t an “AI Sputnik” moment lead to something similar? One could view DeepSeek as a canary in the coal mine, as it signals a potential decline in U.S. technological supremacy in the face of China’s growing technological capabilities. I, however, view this issue differently.
