What is Deepseek
Why investment in science is important.
AI technology giants were caught off guard as the stock market took a significant beating, and this trend appears likely to continue.
Late last week, Deepseek announced its success in replicating and exceeding the AI efforts of Nvidia, Meta, and OpenAI. More significantly, it accomplished these goals at a tenth of the price. While Meta recently announced plans to spend nearly $65 billion, Deepseek has achieved comparable results with just $600 million in investment.
Wall Street and Silicon Valley are recovering from Monday's massive valuation collapse. Nvidia and other tech giants lost $1 trillion in market valuation. This decline is particularly alarming because recent stock market gains have been primarily driven by the "Magnificent Seven" stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla).
The Takeaway
The AI wars have arrived, and the fight for intellectual and human capital dominance stands at the forefront. From 1980 to 2000, the U.S. economy strategically shifted from manufacturing to a service-based model. Investment in education and infrastructure helped maintain America's status as a premier destination for higher education and science.
However, the United States' increasing disinterest in higher education, declining investment in research and development, and growing distrust in science threaten to jeopardize its status as a world leader in intellectual advancement. This shift occurs at a crucial moment as global competition in AI development intensifies.
