BEIJING – Chinese companies are looking at ways to improve productivity using Deepseek’s latest artificial intelligence models.
The Chinese AI model introduces this inference process and insists on covering the ChatGpt of rival Openai at cost despite US restrictions on China’s access to advanced semiconductors required to develop its technology. Since then, it has taken the world by storm for several weeks.
The eight automakers, including BYD, at least nine financial securities companies, three state-owned telecommunications operators and smartphone brand honors, are among many people who rushed to integrate with DeepSeek last week. Cloud computing operators Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent and Baidu offer all the ways clients can access the latest models of DeepSeek.
“This is unprecedented,” Wei Sun, principal of Artificial Intelligence at Counterpoint Research, said in an email Monday. She noted the recruitment rate, the size of business integration, and the range of specific industries covered.
“When you have all of this, you know that it has a huge social and economic impact,” she said.
Optimism about artificial intelligence is spreading across Chinese stocks. UBS said on Wednesday that AI-related Chinese stocks have risen 15% since the start of the year, 9% above the broader MSCI China index.
Timing is a major factor in widespread interest. Deepseek released its latest R1 model on January 20th, with news of its low-cost inference ability spurring the sale of global high-tech stocks on January 27th. – Monthly holidays.
As a result, the less developed parts of China gave us a deeper understanding of AI and its impact. This is a topic previously limited to conversations in China’s biggest cities, says Wenhao Zhang, CEO of Beijing-based consumer marketing consultancy Doodod.
“This is the main education in the market. It drives development of the entire ecosystem,” he said Tuesday in a Mandarin translated by CNBC.
After studying AI at Tsinghua University, Zhang founded Doodod in 2012, building customer engagement through social media analytics. He said the company that began looking at Deepseek’s products late last year and began using it more after the R1 release in late January, said the company would count Chinese banks and Toyota as its clients.
Founded from a quantitative hedge fund in 2023, Deepseek released the basic version of the R1 in November and the V3 model in December. I launched the smartphone chatbot app in January.
Open Source Local Development
Another attractive factor for businesses is that Deepseek’s model is open source and can be downloaded and customized by individuals and businesses.
Deepseek also touted the application’s significantly lower prices and touted the use of Openai’s technology and technology. ChatGPT is not officially available in mainland China, and users must provide overseas phone numbers and payment methods from supportive countries such as the US.
Deepseek has changed the perception that AI models belong to large companies only and are expensive to implement, says James Tong, CEO of Movietech, who says that clients will include Danone and China’s state grids. I said that.
He said Movitech began consolidating previous versions of Deepseek in the fourth quarter last year, helping to increase sales of around 25% from the same period in 2023. The ability to make client decisions, he said.
Many recent videos on social media in China show off how to run a local version of Deepseek on Apple’s Mac Mini.
According to data from Consultancy WPIC, Apple Mac Mini online sales in China rose significantly between November and January. The electronics-centric JD.com site recorded around 20,200 units sales in January, up from nearly 19,400 in December and around 12,250 in November, data shows.
Chimley, a senior Asian analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said Deepseek’s affordability cuts prices to more expensive AI models, allowing more companies to adopt the technology. Masu. He added that the open source model allows AI applications to be developed locally through financial, banking and healthcare businesses that are subject to strict data protection regulations in China.
“It’s still very early to refer to specific business applications, but the key point is that Deepseek accelerates the commodity of AI,” Lee said.
Beijing is also increasing its support. China’s national supercomputing network announced on Tuesday that eligible companies and individuals will be able to obtain three months of free DeepSeek access, along with subsidized computing power.
Similar to Openai’s Trump Support Stargate Project in the US to build AI infrastructure, and build AI infrastructure. It’s there. He is also the author of “Digital Wars: How China’s technological capabilities shape the future of AI, blockchain and cyberspace.”
It’s not focused on Deepseek
Hurrying to try Deepseek doesn’t mean it will become the only AI provider for Chinese companies. US and Chinese developers regularly release new models.
Movitech is also using Alibaba’s Qwen AI model, Tong said the market wants technology that can reduce costs and produce results, whether it’s Openai or Deepseek. .
According to partner and COO Shu Weibing, Hanghang AI, which invested hundreds of millions of yuan to develop AI solutions for businesses across 20 industries, uses a variety of models.
Many people first used “Baidu” and then realized it wasn’t as good as youmi, and it wasn’t that good [ByteDance’s] Also, Doubao, who lowered the price, said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “Now it’s Deepseek.”
It is still unclear how generative AI can increase productivity and profit.
SHU said SMEs and businesses that integrate AI with hardware have so far focused on increasing efficiency rather than creating new consumer services.
Despite the falling prices of AI models, “SMEs are still waiting to adopt technology, due to the relatively high cost for full deployment, such as computing power and customization, Mike Fang and more. It could be in period,” Gartner’s senior director analyst said on Wednesday in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
However, consulting firms predict that by 2027, the average price for accessing the generated AI model will be less than 1% of the current cost. By 2029, 60% of Chinese companies expect to incorporate AI into their key products and services. , forming the leading driver of revenue growth.
