Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta¡¯s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software ¡ª which lets other companies access and build on top of its technology ¡ª saying that having an American model as the underpinning of new products was key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
Now the emergence of DeepSeek, a state-of-the-art AI model from China, is pressure-testing Zuckerberg¡¯s strategy and threatening the home-grown advantage for the U.S. The Chinese startup says its technology uses a fraction of the cost and computing power of its American rivals, and it¡¯s offering an open-source alternative to Meta¡¯s Llama and other made-in-the-USA models.
Despite hesitations about its connections to China, in an appearance on Joe Rogan¡¯s podcast in early January the Meta CEO lauded DeepSeek as a ¡°very advanced model¡± that was ¡°doing really good work.¡± That sentiment has been echoed this week by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who said it¡¯s ¡°invigorating to have a new competitor,¡± and U.S. President Donald Trump, who said on Monday that he views DeepSeek¡¯s faster, less-expensive methods ¡°as a positive, as an asset.¡±
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