In Paris this week, a global summit on artificial intelligence was as freewheeling and inquisitive as the researchers making AI breakthroughs. India’s leader, for example, spoke of “re-skilling our people” for an AI-driven future. France warned against too much red tape on AI.
“If we regulate before we innovate, we won’t have any innovation of our own,” President Emmanuel Macron told France 2 television.
Many leaders promised big investments in AI research or guarantees of electricity for the computer chips driving AI’s demanding software. The United Kingdom’s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, told Politico that trends in AI “are being set by the power of the technology itself.”
So far, the power behind AI is mainly the intelligence, creativity, and curiosity expressed by those lifting the technology to new levels. That fact hung over the summit – and was made clear to the world – after the Chinese company DeepSeek revealed its latest AI model in January.
DeepSeek’s advances in cost efficiency stunned competitors. Yet the biggest surprise was how the founder, engineer Liang Wenfeng, broke through mental barriers in a China that has long prized profits and simple refinement of technology invented elsewhere.
Mr. Liang chose an open-source approach that allows outsiders to contribute, rather than rushing to commercialization. He sees accessibility and affordability as gifts to users. “Giving is actually an extra honor,” he told the Chinese news outlet 36Kr.
He says attracting users is not the purpose. Rather, achieving the highest possible breakthroughs in AI is the goal.
In 2023, Mr. Liang started a research lab that hired more than 100 young engineers – as well as graduates in literature – who have the “confidence” to be original rather than imitative. China, he said, must “become a contributor, rather than just a free rider” in technology.
His style is more followership than leadership. “Everyone has his or her own unique growth experience and ideas, and there is no need to push him or her,” said Mr. Liang. He gives workers a “luxury” that few in China enjoy – the freedom to experiment and a collaborative culture, a former DeepSeek researcher told MIT Technology Review.
Innovation, said Mr. Liang, “requires curiosity and creativity” and that the quest for new ideas by “high-density” talent is the company’s “moat” against competitors.
“The most important thing now is to participate in the wave of global innovation,” he said. During this week’s summit on AI, that spirit of exploration was exactly what world leaders were trying to find.
