To many Chinese, DeepSeek’s performance represents a win for China’s education system, demonstrating that it is on par with or has surpassed that of the United States.
According to DeepSeek’s creator, the main team of engineers and scientists behind the Chinese start-up that has shaken the A.I. globe all attended Chinese universities. This is in contrast to many Chinese technology enterprises, which have frequently recruited talent trained abroad.
As Chinese users on social media basked in Americans’ astonished reactions, several cited China’s large number of scientific Ph.D.s each year. “DeepSeek’s success proves that our education is awesome,” ran the title of one blog post.
International acclaim has flooded in. Pavel Durov, the inventor of the messaging network Telegram, stated last month that strong rivalry in Chinese schools has spurred the country’s artificial intelligence triumphs. “If the U.S. doesn’t reform its education system, it risks ceding tech leadership to China,” he said in an interview.
China has made considerable investments in education, particularly in science and technology, which has helped to cultivate a large pool of talent, which is critical to the country’s objective of being a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2025.
However, outside of the classroom, those graduates must deal with a grueling business culture as well as the ruling Communist Party’s political dictates. Under its current leader, Xi Jinping, the party has prioritized control.
DeepSeek has able to avoid many of these constraints, thanks in part to its modest profile and founder’s devotion to intellectual curiosity above rapid riches. It remains to be seen how long this can continue.
“There are many young, active, and bright researchers and engineers in China. Yiran Chen, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, believes there isn’t a significant educational difference between China and the United States in that regard, particularly in artificial intelligence. “But the constraint is really from other parts.”
Many Chinese people believe that the strength of their country’s education system is inextricably linked to its worldwide position. The government has made significant investments in higher education, and the number of university graduates each year has increased by more than 14 times over the last two decades. Several Chinese colleges are currently ranked among the world’s top. Nonetheless, for decades, China’s finest and brightest students have traveled overseas, and many have remained there.
According to certain measurements, that is beginning to change.
In 2020, China generated more than four times the number of STEM graduates as the US. MacroPolo, a Chicago-based research company that examines China, found that since 2018, it has introduced more than 2,300 undergraduate programs in AI.
MacroPolo discovered that by 2022, over half of the world’s top A.I. researchers will be from Chinese undergraduate universities, compared to around 18% from American ones. While the bulk of these outstanding researchers continue to work in the United States, an increasing number are based in China.
“Over the previous five years, you’ve produced an abundance of talent. “They have to go somewhere,” said Damien Ma, the creator of MacroPolo.
Washington has also made it more difficult for Chinese students studying in specific sectors, such as artificial intelligence, to acquire visas to the United States, citing national security concerns.
“If they don’t go abroad, they’ll start their own company or work for one in China,” Mr. Ma added.
Some have criticized China’s educational system as being highly exam-oriented and stifling of creativity and innovation. Mr. Ma recognized that the rise of China’s artificial intelligence education has been uneven, and not every program is generating top-tier talent. But China’s finest universities, such as Tsinghua University and Peking University, are world-class; many DeepSeek personnel attended there.
According to Marina Zhang, a professor of Chinese innovation at the University of Technology Sydney, the Chinese government has also contributed to stronger linkages between academics and businesses than in the West. It has invested heavily in research programs and encouraged academics to participate to national artificial intelligence efforts.
