To many Chinese, Deepseek’s success is the victory of the Chinese education system, proof that it is equal to that in the United States or even surpassed it.
The fundamental team of developers and scientists behind Deepsek, a Chinese start who inserted the AI world, all attended the University of China, according to the founder of the company. It is a contrast with many Chinese technological companies, which have often sought talents educated abroad.
While Chinese commentators hit the shocked reactions of Americans on the net, some have pointed to a large number of doctorates of science a year that China products per year. “The success of Deepseek proves that our education is great,” read The title of one blog.
Acclaim even poured from abroad. Pavel DurovThe founder of the Telegram Message Platform, said last month that fierce competition in Chinese schools encouraged the success of the country in artificial intelligence. “If they do not reform their education system now, it risks to technological leadership in China,” ” He wrote online.
The reality is more complex. That, China has invested a lot in education, especially in science and technology, which helped nurture a significant series of talent, a key to his ambition Become a world leader in AI. until 2023.
But beyond the classroom, these graduates must also be opposed to obstacles that include corporate culture and political whimpering of the ruling communist party. Under her current top leader, Xi Jinping, the party emphasized control, not economic growth, and was ready to break up technological companies that he thinks he is too influential.
Deepseek managed to avoid many of these pressures, partly because he retained a low profile and his founder declared his obligation For intellectual research, not fast profits. It remains to be seen, how long it can continue.
“There are many young, energetic and talented researchers and engineers in China. I don’t think in this perspective in terms of education between China and the US, especially in AI, “said Yiran Chen, a professor of electrical engineering and computer engineering at Duke University.” But the limit is really from other parts. “
For many in China, the power of his education system is closely related to the global status of the state. The government has invested a lot in higher education, and the number of university graduates of students every year, once a minute, has increased more than 14 times in the last two decades. Several Chinese universities are now classified as the world’s best. However, for decades, the best and brightest students in China have gone abroad, and many have stayed there.
In some measuring data, this begins to change.
China produced More than four times as many STEM graduated in 2020 as well as the United States. In particular in AI, he has added more than 2,300 undergraduate programs since 2018, according to a study by Macropol, research groups based in Chicago, which studies China.
To 2022 nearly half of the world’s leading researchers AI Came from Chinese undergraduate institutionsUnlike about 18 percent of American, macropolo establish. While most of these top researchers still work in the United States, an increasing number works in China.
“Get all that talent in the last few years. They have to leave somewhere,” said Damien Ma, Macropolov’s founder.
Washington also made it difficult for Chinese students in certain areas, including AI, obtaining visas in the United States, quoting concern for national security.
“If they will not go abroad, they will start a company” or work for Chinese, Mr. Ma.
Some have criticized the Chinese education system as excessively oriented to test and suffocate to creativity and innovation. The spread of Chinese AI education was uneven, and not every program produced top -notch talent, Mr. Ma admitted. But the best Chinese schools, such as Tsinghua University and Peking University, are world classes; Many studied Deepseek employees there.
The Chinese government also helped to encourage more powerful ties between academies and companies than in the West, said Marina Zhang, a professor at Sydney Technology University who studies Chinese innovation. He poured money into research projects and encouraged academics to contribute to national AI initiatives.
However, the involvement of the Government is also one of the greatest potential threats of Chinese innovation.
Beijing has blessed the AI sector so far. But in 2020, after deciding to have too little controls over major companies like Alibaba, she launched a great, long -lasting suppression of the Chinese technological industry. (Deepseek’s founder, Liang Weenfeng, turned to Ai from his previous focus on speculative trade, partly due to a separate government’s burglary there.)
The resulting release of technological companies, in combination with the uncertainty of the future of the sector, helped reduce the attraction of the sector that once attracted many of the best Chinese students. A record number of young people decided to compete for the civil service jobs instead, which are low paid but stable.
Ai has been a bit protected from brain drain so far, partly because of his political imprimatura, said Yanbo Wang, a professor at the University of Hong Kong who studies Chinese technological entrepreneurship. He added that he expects a more successful Chinese start-up AI, driven by young people soon. But it is impossible to say what the landscape of China would look like if Beijing had been more tolerant in recent years according to major technological companies, he added.
“Chinese long -term AI competitiveness depends not only on its STEM education system, but also on the treatment of private investors, entrepreneurs and companies for profit companies,” he added.
Even within private companies, employees often have to fight focus on rapid results. This has led to a widely accepted stereotype, including China, that Chinese engineers are better improved in other people’s innovations than in their arrival.
Mr. Liang, founder of Deepseek, regretted so much, noting last year that “top talents in China were underestimated. Because on the social level there is so little difficult innovations, they do not have the opportunity to recognize. “
The success of Deepseek can be dependent on how it was different from other Chinese technological companies as much on how to share their strengths. He was funded by his profit from the parents of Hedge Fund. And Mr. Liang has described employment of a graduate graduate In addition to computer scientists, in the spirit of encouraging a free intellectual atmosphere.
From Deepseek’s success, some voices have invited several Chinese companies to mimic his model. The Internet Commentary of the Committee of the Communist Party of the Province of Zhejiang, where Deepseek has its headquarters, has declared the need for “confidence in young talents” and giving the leading companies “greater control over innovation resources”.
But the best way to use China to use its well -educated, ambitious workforce of AI can be to get the government 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 that is intentionally planned, let alone learned.”
Siyi Zhao contribute to the research.
