A prominent figure in the artificial intelligence sector said that China will reduce the gap in AI development with the United States by three months in some regions.
Lee Kai-Fu, CEO of Chinese startup 01.AI, is also the former head of Google China.
Lee told Reuters that DeepSeek revealed that China has made progress in areas such as infrastructure software engineering.
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DeepSeek When launching the global AI industry, it launched AI inference model In January, it said it received advanced chip training and was cheaper than its Western competitors.
The announcement questioned the assumption that U.S. sanctions prevented China’s artificial intelligence sector, although there was some doubt about the cost of the announcement.
“Previously, I thought it was a six to nine month gap and lagged behind in all aspects. Now, I think it might be three months behind in some core technologies, but it's actually leading in some specific areas,” Lee said in an interview in Hong Kong.
Forced to innovate after chip sanctions
He added that Washington's semiconductor sanctions were a “double-edged sword” that created short-term challenges but also forced Chinese companies to innovate under restrictions, pointing out how Chinese companies developed their algorithms.
“The fact that DeepSeek was able to figure out the chain of thought through a new reinforcement learning approach is that either catch up with the United States, learn quickly, or be more innovative now,” Lee said.
At the end of 2022, shortly after Openai’s Chatgpt launched, China’s tech industry entered a global competition to develop generative AI, but until DeepSeek launched, many technology leaders in the country said they lag far behind their Western counterparts.
Lee also runs his own venture capital firm, founded 01.AI in March 2023, joining other new AI startups such as Zhipuai and Moonshot, as well as Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba and Bytedance and Bytedance and building the basic model.
Li said that investment in AI startups has become “brave” in a market environment with well-funded tech giants and rapidly developing open source alternatives.
He said that 01.AI will focus on practical AI applications – software solutions that help customers better deploy basic models.
Earlier this month, 01.AI launched Wanzhi, a new software platform that helps enterprises deploy AI technology. Lee added that the company has begun generating revenue and project growth in 2025, several times the $15 million it earned last year.
- Jim Pollard's Extra Input and Editing by Reuters
See also:
Baidu, China, launches two free AI models to compete for DeepSeek
Alibaba releases new AI model, saying it's better than DeepSeek
China's DeepSeek rock US tech giant's “AI breakthrough”
Bytedance's plan to have an AI infrastructure plan of $20 billion this year.
Biden restricts access to AI chips for U.S. companies and their allies
China's “deception” is a way of outstanding bargaining chips: Special Envoy
New rules for U.S. to cut off Chinese artificial intelligence access
Support from venture capitalists puts democracy at risk – NYP
NVIDIA immediately stops exporting AI chips to China
Chinese military, AI agencies are still buying NVIDIA chips despite U.S. ban
