Just after the inauguration, tech giants were touting a $ 500 billion American AI initiation. Soon thereafter, a Chinese startup DeepSeek, unveiled AI capacity trained for only $5 million and as good or better than the OpenAI’s ChatGPT which cost $100 million to train. (If you’re looking for analogy, Henry Ford’s assembly line drove down costs so that millions could afford a car which previously had been handcrafted, i.e. expensive).
The unveiling of DeepSeek has been described a “Sputnik” moment, recalling the fear and alarm that the Soviet Union created when its satellite became the first man made object to leave the earth. In his “No Mercy, No Malice” blog, Scott Galloway thinks it’s more like the day that the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb, initiating a global arms race.
In short, he sees enhanced competition in AI, and while that doesn’t bode well in arms races, it is beneficial in an economy. He writes, “Bicycles, sanitation, airplanes, vaccines, and Crispr are just a few technologies that have changed the world, but their benefits were dispersed across society rather than being hoarded by a few shareholders. I increasingly believe AI will join this roster — it presents dynamics similar to most stakeholder vs. shareholder innovations.”
His thoughts on the matter are worthwhile reading. Check out his view of “A New AI World.”
But there are no unmixed blessings (see next).
