Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) developer DeepSeek recently made its first major public appearance in nearly a year. A senior researcher from the company, Chen Deli, spoke at a government-organized internet conference, sharing a pessimistic view about how AI might affect humanity in the future.
Chen Deli joined the CEOs of five other companies, including Unitree and BrainCo, on stage at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. In China, these six companies are called the “six little dragons” of AI.
When asked about DeepSeek’s global success and how its open-source method helps AI grow, Chen explained his thoughts. He believes AI will greatly assist humans in the short term. However, he warned that within 5-10 years, AI could threaten many jobs as it becomes capable of taking over tasks people currently do. He stressed that AI companies must be aware of these dangers.
“In the next 10-20 years, AI could handle all remaining human work, leading to a huge challenge for society,” Chen said. “At that point, tech companies need to act as ‘defenders’.” He added, “I am very positive about the technology itself, but I view its potential impact on society negatively.”
DeepSeek gained global attention in January after releasing an affordable AI model that outperformed many leading U.S. models. Since then, DeepSeek representatives have only made one public appearance before this recent conference: founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng met Chinese President Xi Jinping in February during a televised meeting with local business owners. Neither Liang nor the company has publicly discussed their success much, and they skipped major Chinese tech conferences in recent months.
Following DeepSeek’s impressive breakthrough, the Chinese government has promoted the company as a symbol of the country’s technological strength and its ability to withstand U.S. sanctions, especially as tech competition between the two nations intensifies.
DeepSeek has not released a major new model since January. Still, its other announcements continue to draw attention. In September, the company introduced an update to its V3 model, describing it as its newest “experimental” version. They claim it is easier to train and better at handling long texts than previous versions. DeepSeek has also become crucial in China’s efforts to build its own AI industry and boost the domestic chip sector. Chinese AI chip companies, such as Cambricon and Huawei, have developed hardware compatible with DeepSeek’s models. In August, DeepSeek announced an upgraded model specifically optimized for Chinese-made chips, which sent domestic chip stock prices soaring.
