China’s AI Playbook: Open, Efficient, and Closing the Gap

Is China’s AI industry out-innovating the West by being more transparent and efficient? The answer may surprise you.

China’s AI sector is rapidly narrowing the gap with the US, thanks to breakthroughs from firms like DeepSeek and Alibaba. DeepSeek’s v3 LLM, with 685 billion parameters, rivals leading Western models like OpenAI’s o1 but operates at a fraction of the cost due to algorithmic efficiencies.

Unlike the closed approaches of US firms, Chinese companies openly share their innovations, fostering a vibrant ecosystem that attracts top talent. Models like Alibaba’s Qwen openly publish their reasoning processes, standing in stark contrast to the secretive nature of Western AI labs.

While US firms still lead in areas like integration and user-facing applications, China’s focus on cost-effective, open AI is reshaping the competitive landscape. Can Western AI firms maintain their dominance without adopting more open and efficient strategies? Or did open-source just win?

Read the full article on The Economist.

----

💡 We're entering a world where intelligence is synthetic, reality is augmented, and the rules are being rewritten in front of our eyes.

Staying up-to-date in a fast-changing world is vital. That is why I have launched Futurwise; a personalized AI platform that transforms information chaos into strategic clarity. With one click, users can bookmark and summarize any article, report, or video in seconds, tailored to their tone, interests, and language. Visit Futurwise.com to get started for free!