For many Chinese, Deepseek’s success is a victory for China’s education system, proof that it equals that of the United States or has overcome it.
The main team of developers and scientists behind Deepseek, the Chinese start that has taken the AI ​​world, all attended a university in China, according to the founder of the company. This is a contrast with many Chinese technology companies, which often sought talent abroad.
As Chinese commentators online are based on shocking reactions from Americans, some have shown the high number of scientific doctrines produced by China annually. “Deepseek’s success proves that our education is awesome,” read the title of a blog post.
Acclaim has even spilled from abroad. Pavel Durov, the founder of the message platform telegram, said last month that intense competition in Chinese schools had fueled the country’s successes to artificial intelligence. “If the US does not reform its education system, it is in danger of giving technology leadership to China,” he wrote on the internet.
The reality is more complicated. Yes, China has invested greatly in education, especially in science and technology, which has helped to cultivate an important team of talent, the key to its ambition to become a world leader at AI by 2025.
But outside the classroom, these graduates must also face obstacles that include a corporate grinding culture and the political whims of the ruling Communist Party. Under the top leader of Xi Jinping, the party has emphasized control rather than economic growth and was willing to break the technology businesses it considers too much influence.
Deepseek managed to avoid many of these pressures, partly because it maintained a low profile, and its founder declared his commitment to spiritual exploration and not fast profits. But it remains to see how long it can continue to do so.
“There are many young, energetic and talented researchers and engineers in China. I don’t think there is a big gap in education between China and the US in this perspective, especially in AI,” said Yiran Chen, Professor of Electrical and Engineering Computer at Duke University. “But the restriction is really from other places.”
For many in China, the power of its educational system is closely linked to the world’s global regime. The government has largely invested in higher education and the number of university graduates each year, once tiny, has increased more than 14 times in the last two decades. Several Chinese universities are now ranked among the best in the world. Still, for decades, China’s best and most brilliant students have gone abroad and many have stayed there.
With some measurements, this is starting to change.
China produced more than four times more STEM graduates in 2020 as the United States. Specifically to AI, it has added more than 2,300 undergraduate programs since 2018, according to a research by Macropolo, a research team based in Chicago studying China.
By 2022, almost half of AI’s top AI researchers came from Chinese undergraduate institutions, as opposed to about 18 % of the US, Macropolo found. And while the majority of these leading researchers still work in the United States, a growing number is working in China.
“You mix all these talents in recent years. They have to go somewhere,” said Damien Ma, founder of Macropolo.
Washington has also been difficult for Chinese students in some areas, including AI, to obtain visas in the United States, referring to national security concerns.
“If they are not going to go abroad, they are going to start a company” or work for a Chinese, Mr Ma said.
Some have criticized China’s educational system as overly oriented and drowned in creativity and innovation. The expansion of China’s AI training was heterogeneous, and not every program produces top -level talent, Mr Ma recognized. But the leading schools in China, such as the University of Tsinghua and the University of Beijing, are worldwide. Many of Deepseek officials studied there.
The Chinese government has also helped promote more powerful links between academics and businesses than in the West, said Marina Zhang, a professor at the University of Sydney Technology, who studies Chinese innovation. He has spilled money into research projects and encouraged academics to contribute to AI national initiatives.
However, the government’s involvement is also one of the biggest potential threats to Chinese innovation.
Beijing has blessed the AI ​​sector – for now. But in 2020, after deciding that he had very little control over large companies such as Alibaba, he began a sweeping, year of repression of Chinese technology. (Deepseek founder, Liang Wenfeng, revolved at AI from his previous focus on speculative transactions, partly due to a separate government repression there.)
The resulting redundancies in technology companies, coupled with the uncertainty of the future of the sector, have helped to reduce the appeal of a sector that once attracted many leading Chinese students. Youth record numbers have instead chosen to compete for public service jobs, which are low -computer but stable.
AI has somewhat shielded from the brain drain so far, partly because of his politician Imprimatur, said Yanbo Wang, a professor at Hong Kong University, who studies China’s technological entrepreneurship. He added that he was expecting more successful Chinese newly established AI companies to appear soon, they are driven by young people. But it is impossible to say what the China AI landscape would look like if Beijing has been more tolerant of large technology companies in recent years, he added.
“The long -term competitiveness of China’s AI depends not only on its STEM education system, but also on the handling of private investors, entrepreneurs and speculative companies,” he added.
Even in private companies, employees often need to focus on the focus on fast results. This has led to a widely accepted stereotype, including China, that Chinese engineers are better in improving other people’s innovations than to come with their own.
Mr Liang, founder of Deepseek, has mourned so much, noting last year that “the top talents in China are underestimated. Because there is such a little harsh innovation that happens at a social level, they do not have the opportunity to be recognized.”
Deepseek’s success may depend both on how it was different from other Chinese technology companies and how it shared their best. Funded from the profits from his parenting hedge fund. And Mr. Liang described the graduates of humanities besides computer scientists, in the spirit of promoting a free spiritual atmosphere.
Since Deepseek’s success, some voices have urged more Chinese businesses to imitate its model. An online comment by the Communist Party Committee of Zhejiang province, where Deepseek is headquartered, she said the need to “trust young talents” and give top companies “greater control over innovation”.
But the best way for China to use the well -educated, ambitious AI workforce may be for the government to get out of the way.
“Innovation requires as little intervention and management as possible,” Mr Liang said in another interview. “Innovation often comes by itself, not as something deliberately planned, let alone taught.”
Siyi zhao He contributed research.
