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DeepSeek's open-source models challenge U.S. tech

dominance

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Liang says DeepSeek's focus on research different from

most

Chinese tech firms

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China's AI industry cannot forever follow the United

States,

Liang says

By Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Liang Wenfeng, the

39-year-old founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, has in the

matter of weeks become the face of China's tech industry and its

hope of overcoming an ever-tightening noose of export controls

imposed by the United States.

Liang had kept an extremely low profile until Jan. 20, when

he was one of nine individuals asked to give a speech at a

closed-door symposium hosted by China's Premier Li Qiang.

He gave two rare media interviews to Chinese media outlet

Waves last year and in 2023, but apart from that has stayed

mostly out of the public eye. DeepSeek did not respond to a

request for an interview.

At the symposium, the millennial's youthful appearance

contrasted with the grey-haired academics, officials and

state-owned conglomerate heads sat around him, pictures and

video published by Chinese broadcaster CCTV showed.

But the fact Liang was invited to share his opinions on

Chinese government policy highlights Beijing's recognition of

DeepSeek's role in potentially upending the global AI order, in

China's favour.

DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that the firm

says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of current

services, triggering a global selloff in tech stocks.

Last year, Baidu ( BIDU ) CEO Robin Li spoke at a similar symposium

chaired by the Chinese premier. Li, who announced China's first

ChatGPT rival in March 2023, said in an interview that same year

China would never recreate Microsoft-backed OpenAI's success and

that Chinese firms should focus on applying existing AI models

for commercial purposes.

Under Liang's leadership, DeepSeek deliberately avoided

app-building. Instead, it concentrated research talent and

resources on creating a model that could match, or better

OpenAI, and it hopes in the future to continue focusing on

cutting-edge models that will be used by other companies to

build consumer and enterprise-facing AI products.

Liang's approach stood out in a Chinese tech industry that

was used to taking innovations from abroad, from smartphone apps

to electric vehicles, and quickly scaling them up, often much

faster than the countries where the inventions were first made.

"China's AI can't be in the position of following forever.

We often say that there is a gap of one or two years between

China's AI and the United States, but the real gap is the

difference between originality and imitation," Liang said in an

interview with Waves in July last year.

Liang's interviews reveal a belief that China's tech

industry had reached a crossroads where it lacked the confidence

but not the capital needed to engage in fundamental R&D

breakthroughs.

'CURIOSITY AND DESIRE TO CREATE'

"In the past thirty years, (China's tech industry) has only

emphasized making money, and ignored innovation. Innovation is

not solely driven by business, it also needs curiosity and a

desire to create," he said in July.

DeepSeek has taken the decision to make all its models

open-source, unlike its U.S. rival OpenAI. In open-source

models, the base code is publicly available for any developer to

use and modify at will.

Liang's interviews reveal he has bought into the open-source

culture that U.S. tech insiders previously argued was one reason

the U.S.'s Silicon Valley held an edge over its Chinese

counterparts.

"Even if OpenAI is closed-source, it cannot stop others from

catching up...Open-source is like a cultural practice, rather

than a business practice...a company that does this will have

soft power."

Liang grew up in the southern city of Guangdong, which

during the eighties and nineties led the country in adopting

market capitalism. Liang said back then he was surrounded by

people who valued starting a business over studying, but he was

more academically inclined.

He would go on to enrol in the elite Zhejiang University at

age 17, majoring in Electronics and Communication Engineering

before pursuing a master's degree in Information and

Communication Engineering, which he completed in 2010.

Liang then co-founded a quantitative hedge fund in 2015,

which uses complex mathematical algorithms for trading as

opposed to human analysis.

The fund's portfolio totalled over 100 billion yuan ($13.79

billion) by the end of 2021 but in April 2023, it announced on

its WeChat account that it would expand its remit beyond the

investment industry and concentrate resources to "explore the

essence of AGI". DeepSeek was created a month later.

OpenAI defines AGI (Artificial general intelligence) as

autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically

valuable tasks.

DeepSeek's employees are mainly graduates and PhD students

from China's top universities, whom Liang believes prefer to

work for DeepSeek because it is tackling the biggest challenges

in AI.

"What attracts the best talent is obviously the solving of

the world's hardest problems," he said in July.

"Our goal is still to go for AGI."

($1 = 7.2507 Chinese yuan renminbi)