How DeepSeek is Influencing AI Ethics Discussions

As the landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve at a blistering pace, new players are emerging that challenge established norms & practices. One such player, the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, has recently taken the AI world by storm with its advanced models and cost-effective solutions. The implications of DeepSeek’s innovations extend far beyond mere technological advancements, igniting heated discussions on the ethics of AI development, data privacy, censorship, & bias. In this post, we'll explore how DeepSeek is shaping these critical conversations in the AI community.

Founded in May 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a notable figure within the AI industry and hedge fund world, DeepSeek operates independently without pressure from external investors, largely funded by the High-Flyer quantitative hedge fund founded by Wenfeng himself. This unique setup allows DeepSeek to pursue ambitious research and development in AI while building a team of exceptionally skilled graduates from top Chinese universities who prioritize technical abilities over traditional work experience.

DeepSeek made headlines with the launch of its open-source coding model, DeepSeek Coder, and the subsequent release of the DeepSeek LLM, which boasts a remarkable 67 billion parameters, aiming to rival the offerings of industry giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. What’s truly disruptive, however, is the cost efficiency of DeepSeek’s models, triggering a price war within the Chinese AI market, compelling major tech companies to lower their prices to stay competitive.

With a price tag of just $0.14 per million tokens for its DeepSeek-R1, this startup has forced even the largest competitors to reconsider their pricing strategies. This competitive pressure is pushing the envelope on what is considered acceptable pricing in AI, thereby making advanced AI technologies more accessible. However, this accessibility raises serious ethical questions about the implications of cheap AI, particularly concerning surveillance & bias.

One of the most pressing ethical considerations concerning DeepSeek is its operation within the confines of China’s censorship policies. AI models developed in China are subjected to the oversight of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which mandates that AI must uphold core socialist values. This means that models like DeepSeek's are deliberately programmed to avoid politically sensitive topics and questions surrounding the country's political history. For example, inquiries related to events like Tiananmen Square are sidestepped or met with vague responses, effectively curbing open discourse.

This behavior raises significant concerns regarding how AI systems can shape or influence public perception. The tendency for DeepSeek to redirect discussions away from certain topics effectively makes it a tool for state propaganda, prompting discussions around the ethical boundaries of AI applications. Is it acceptable for AI to be used as an instrument of Censorship, even selectively? Or does this create a perilous precedent for bias, steering public opinion based on pre-defined governmental narratives?

Critics have raised alarms about the normalization of censorship within AI, warning that this could lead to a slippery slope where AI is increasingly relied upon to validate or reinforce state-sponsored ideologies. This notion of