Donald Trump's 'wake-up call' warning as DeepSeek AI model sends shockwaves through US tech firms
DeepSeek R1 news: DeepSeek's rapid ascent to the top of the App Store prompts concerns in Silicon Valley, leading to significant stock market declines.
DeepSeek R1 news: US President Donald Trump has warned that the emergence of DeepSeek, a popular ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence model from China, is a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley.
The release of the latest DeepSeek model R1 last week initially received limited attention, overshadowed by Donald Trump's inauguration on the same day.
But over the weekend, DeepSeek's chatbot surged to become the most downloaded free app on Apple's US App Store, displacing OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The emergence of Chinese artificial intelligence start-up rocked US tech giants’ stocks on Monday night amid concerns that the new low-cost AI model would upend their dominance.
Tech shares plunged and chip maker Nvidia suffered falls of nearly 17% on Monday. Nvidia’s drop in share price marked the biggest ever one-day loss in market value on Wall Street, of about 589 billion dollars.
Just a week after its launch, DeepSeek quickly became the most downloaded free app in the US. It claims that its large language AI model was made at a fraction of the cost of its rivals, including OpenAI, which uses more expensive Nvidia chips to train its systems on vast swathes of data.
Reacting to the developments on Monday, Donald Trump said the DeepSeek release “should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win”.
The US president argued it could be a “positive” for the country's tech giants and added, “instead of spending billions and billions, you'll spend less, and you'll come up with hopefully the same solution”.
OpenAI's Sam Altman reacts
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said in a post on X it was “legit invigorating to have a new competitor”, calling DeepSeek's R1 “an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price”.
He, however, pledged to speed up some OpenAI releases.
This development comes amid a US government push to ban Chinese-owned TikTok in the United States or force its sale.
The development is significant given the AI boom, ignited by ChatGPT's release in late 2022, has propelled Nvidia to become one of the world's most valuable companies.
David Sacks, Trump's AI advisor and prominent tech investor, said DeepSeek's success justified the White House's decision to reverse executive orders, issued under Joe Biden, that established safety standards for AI development.
The regulations "would have hamstrung American AI companies without any guarantee that China would follow suit," Sacks wrote on X.
Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the tech industry trade group Chamber of Progress, echoed the sentiment: "Now the top AI concern has to be ensuring (the United States) wins."
(With inputs from AFP)
