Indian IT Minister admires DeepSeek achievements
India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has offered unexpected support for Chinese startup DeepSeek, comparing its cost-effective approach to the country’s own strategy in artificial intelligence development.
At an event in the eastern state of Odisha, Vaishnaw emphasized DeepSeek’s impressive achievements: “Some people question the government’s investment volume in the IndiaAI mission. Have you seen what DeepSeek did? $5.5 million and a very powerful model. All thanks to using intelligence.”
The minister’s statement was particularly relevant against the backdrop of March’s IndiaAI program announcement with a $1.25 billion budget, aimed at developing AI startups and creating indigenous artificial intelligence infrastructure.
DeepSeek revolutionized the industry by claiming they spent just two months and less than $6 million to create an AI model using less advanced Nvidia H800 chips. The company’s application recently surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in App Store downloads, while their tools’ price-performance ratio disproved the established view of China’s years-long lag behind American competitors in the AI race.
Vaishnaw’s comments were clearly addressed to Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, who during last year’s visit to India doubted an Indian team’s ability to create a substantial model in OpenAI’s space with a $10 million budget. Altman’s words: “We’ll tell you that competing with us in training base models is completely hopeless. You shouldn’t try. And your job is to try anyway” – are now actively discussed on social media following DeepSeek’s success.
On February 5, Altman plans another visit to India, while his company is engaged in litigation with local digital news outlets and book publishers over copyright violations.
