Official: DeepSeek Success Shows China's 'Ability to Innovate'

FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Official: DeepSeek Success Shows China's 'Ability to Innovate'

FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The DeepSeek app is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

The shock entrance of DeepSeek in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence has put the world on notice as to China's innovation prowess, a high-ranking Beijing official said Thursday.

The startup released a new version of its AI chatbot in January, sending shockwaves across global markets.

DeepSeek wowed industry insiders with its apparent ability to rival or even surpass the capabilities of Western competitors like ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost.

"DeepSeek has stood out in the global field of AI," said Wu Qing, Chairman of China's Securities Regulatory Commission.

"It is not just that the field of AI has been deeply shocked, but now also the world and the financial community have a new understanding of China's ability to innovate in science and technology," he said.

The official added that DeepSeek had contributed to a "recent re-evaluation of Chinese assets".

"If someone does not talk about DeepSeek these days, it seems that they're not fashionable," Wu said.

"But this phenomenon is indeed worthy of our high attention."

Recent weeks have seen shares in Chinese tech titans surge.

Last month, long-shunned Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was seen meeting President Xi Jinping at a business symposium -- signaling a more welcoming stance from Beijing towards its domestic tech sector.

Alibaba's shares rose more than eight percent during Thursday trading in Hong Kong after it unveiled an AI model with a performance it said was "comparable" to DeepSeek.

Investors are watching for announcements this week from Beijing -- where officials are convening for a key annual political event known as the "Two Sessions" -- on further government support to boost innovation and spending.

Wu's comments came during a press conference on China's economy, which has struggled to fully recover from the pandemic.

Authorities are banking on advanced technology as a lifeline to reach official growth targets this year as heightened trade winds batter the export-dependent nation.



Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
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Microsoft Halts China-based Tech Support for Pentagon Systems

FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
FILE - The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Microsoft said Friday it is making sure that personnel based in China are not providing technical support for US Defense Department systems, after investigative news site ProPublica revealed the practice earlier this week.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed that work on Defense Department cloud services had been outsourced to people in China, insisting that the country will not have "any involvement whatsoever" with the department's systems going forward.

"Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services," the company's chief communications officer, Frank Shaw, said in a post on X.

ProPublica reported Tuesday that the tech giant was using engineers based in China -- Washington's primary military rival -- to maintain Pentagon computer systems, with only limited supervision by US personnel who often lacked the necessary expertise to do the job effectively.

US Senator Tom Cotton asked Hegseth to look into the matter in a letter dated Thursday, and the Pentagon chief responded that he would do so.

Hegseth then posted a video on X Friday evening in which he said "it turns out that some tech companies have been using cheap Chinese labor to assist with DoD cloud services. This is obviously unacceptable, especially in today's digital threat environment."

"At my direction, the department will... initiate -- as fast as we can -- a two-week review, or faster, to make sure that what we uncovered isn't happening anywhere else across the DoD," AFP quoted him as saying.

"We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to our military infrastructure and online networks," he added, thanking "all those Americans out there in the media and elsewhere who raised this issue to our attention so we could address it."