Trump Says Chinese AI App DeepSeek Should Be ‘A Wakeup Call’ for US
US President Donald Trump has issued a statement highlighting the rise of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek, describing it as “a wakeup call” for American technology enterprises. Speaking to House Republicans in Miami, Florida, the President expressed the necessity for US industries to concentrate keenly on maintaining their competitive edge.
“The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” Trump emphasized. This development has caused significant concern among Western tech giants due to DeepSeek offering a more efficient and cost-effective alternative compared to current market options like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
DeepSeek, backed by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, launched its DeepSeek-R1 large language model (LLM) on January 20. In a striking contrast to ChatGPT’s subscription-based, closed-source model priced at $200 per month, DeepSeek-R1 is completely open-source and free, allowing users to access and run it on native hardware without restrictions.
President Trump commented on the economic advantages of DeepSeek’s approach: “I’ve been reading about China and some of the companies there, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and much less expensive method, and that’s good because you don’t have to spend as much money. I view that as a positive, as an asset.”
He expressed optimism that the US could adopt similar approaches: “I view that as a positive because you’ll be doing that too, so you won’t be spending as much, and you’ll get the same result, hopefully.” Trump confidently asserted that the US possesses the “greatest” scientists globally, noting that even Chinese leaders acknowledge the US has the “most brilliant” scientific minds.
Highlighting American ingenuity, he stated, “When you hear somebody come up with something, we always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive. That could be very much a positive development. So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”
The launch of DeepSeek has precipitated a significant tech stock selloff. The company debuted its free AI assistant, claiming it requires significantly less data than its competitors and operates at a fraction of the cost. This unsettling news led to a dramatic decrease in the market valuation of US chip-maker Nvidia, with losses surpassing $500 billion.
DeepSeek’s AI model gained substantial global adoption quickly, consequently intensifying the selling pressure on technology stocks. Furthermore, its AI assistant surged in popularity, surpassing rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to become the most downloaded free app in the United States.
The implications of DeepSeek’s emergence in the AI landscape serve as a poignant reminder for the US tech sector to remain vigilant and innovative in a rapidly evolving field. President Trump’s remarks underline a call to action for continued investment and ingenuity to uphold America’s leadership in scientific and technological advancements.
