For a fraction of the cost, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s free, open-source artificial intelligence is outcompeting the world’s previous leading AI model, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, upending the financial predictions of Silicon Valley and causing major turmoil in the U.S. stock market. This comes just after President Trump announced a $500 billion private sector investment plan to boost AI infrastructure in the United States and amid the threat of a major trade war between the U.S. and China. For more, we’re joined by information studies scholar Ramesh Srinivasan, who says DeepSeek’s success is a major disruption to the dominant “Silicon Valley model” of technological development, which has heavily relied on proprietary data and private investment — and contributed to the rise of a tech oligarchy with increasing influence over the state.
