Trump: DeepSeek's rise should serve as a wake-up call for American companies
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Trump: DeepSeek's rise should serve as a wake-up call for American companies
DeepSeek breaks hardware limitations, sparking an intense online debate.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Wu Yu, Jintshi
U.S. President Trump said on Monday that the sudden rise of Chinese AI application DeepSeek "should serve as a wake-up call to America's tech companies," while stating it was positive that Chinese firms had developed cheaper and more efficient AI models.
Trump said he still expected U.S. tech companies to maintain dominance in artificial intelligence but acknowledged the challenge posed by the low-cost AI assistant DeepSeek, which surged to the top of Apple’s App Store over the past weekend.
"The release of the DeepSeek AI by a Chinese company should sound an alarm for our industry—we need to focus on competition," he said during a trip to Florida.
DeepSeek has caused panic across the U.S. tech sector and stock market. According to the little-known Chinese startup behind DeepSeek, the model performs well in tests compared to competing offerings from Meta and OpenAI, yet was developed at a significantly lower cost.
Trump stated he viewed the low-cost model as a "very positive development" overall for the AI industry, because "instead of spending billions, you spend less—hopefully achieving the same solutions."
DeepSeek is the latest in a series of Chinese apps that have recently surged in popularity in the United States. Earlier, amid TikTok teetering on the edge of a ban, Americans turned to Chinese apps Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) and Lemon8 as alternatives. Ultimately, TikTok resumed service for existing users less than a day after shutting down in the U.S., though it remains unavailable for download from both Apple and Google app stores.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order eliminating certain Biden-era regulations on AI development, which he claimed had hindered the industry.
However, it remains unclear what new AI policies— if any—the Trump administration or Congress might pursue in response to DeepSeek’s emergence.
John Moolenaar, Republican congressman from Michigan and chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said Monday he hopes to see the U.S. take action to curb DeepSeek’s growth.
Developers of DeepSeek said they built the application despite current U.S. export controls on high-performance semiconductors. This sparked intense online debate Monday about the effectiveness of hardware restrictions and their future implications.
Mark Warner, Democratic senator from Virginia, defended existing export controls tied to advanced chip technology and suggested even more regulation may be needed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson described DeepSeek as "a serious threat."
David Sacks, the White House AI and cryptocurrency lead, wrote in a post on X that DeepSeek’s success "shows the AI race will be extremely competitive." He also claimed former President Biden’s previous executive orders on the matter "hamstrung" U.S. AI companies.
"I have confidence in America, but we cannot afford complacency," he wrote.
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