DeepSeek Researcher Voices Pessimism About AI’s Future Impact Despite Company’s Global Success

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In its first major public appearance since becoming a global AI sensation, Chinese developer DeepSeek struck a surprisingly cautious tone about the technology’s long-term impact on society.

At the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Chen Deli, a senior researcher at DeepSeek, warned that artificial intelligence could create major social disruptions within the next two decades. “In the next 10–20 years, AI could take over the rest of work humans perform and society could face a massive challenge,” Chen said. “I’m extremely positive about the technology, but I view the impact it could have on society negatively.”

Chen shared the stage with executives from five other Chinese AI companies—Unitree, BrainCo, and others—collectively referred to as the country’s “six little dragons” of AI innovation. While praising AI’s potential in the short term, Chen stressed that companies like DeepSeek must act as “defenders” of social stability as automation accelerates.

DeepSeek rose to global prominence in January after releasing a low-cost open-source AI model that outperformed several leading U.S. systems. The company’s meteoric rise has since made it a symbol of China’s technological resilience amid intensifying competition with the United States.

Despite its success, DeepSeek has remained mostly silent publicly. Its only major appearance this year came when founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng met President Xi Jinping in February. The company has since skipped several major tech events, adding to its enigmatic reputation.

DeepSeek has continued developing its technology quietly, unveiling in September a new V3 model that it described as “experimental,” optimized for efficiency and longer text processing. Its work has also boosted China’s domestic chip ecosystem: hardware makers Cambricon and Huawei now build processors compatible with DeepSeek’s models.

In August, DeepSeek’s announcement of an upgraded model optimized for Chinese-made chips caused local semiconductor stocks to surge—underlining how the company remains both a technical pioneer and a national symbol of self-reliance in AI.

Elon Musk Wins Shareholder Approval for Record $1 Trillion Tesla Pay Plan

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Elon Musk has secured shareholder approval for a record-breaking $1 trillion Tesla pay package, cementing his grip on the company as he pushes to transform the electric vehicle maker into a global leader in AI and robotics.

The plan received over 75% support during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, where Musk appeared on stage alongside dancing robots, calling the moment “a whole new book” in Tesla’s story.

The approved package could grant Musk up to $878 billion in stock over the next decade, contingent on ambitious performance milestones — including delivering 20 million vehicles, deploying 1 million robotaxis, and generating $400 billion in core profit. Tesla’s market value would need to climb from $1.5 trillion to $8.5 trillion for Musk to unlock the full payout.

The vote follows months of intense debate over Musk’s compensation and influence. The Tesla board warned that Musk could shift his focus to other ventures — such as SpaceX or his AI startup xAI — if shareholders rejected the plan.

“This isn’t just another chapter,” Musk said to cheering investors. “It’s the start of something entirely new.”

Critics, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS, opposed the plan, citing governance concerns and the risk of excessive power consolidation. Yet supporters argued that tying compensation to Tesla’s market success aligns Musk’s incentives with shareholders’.

Shareholders also voted to invest in xAI, though analysts noted that many abstentions signaled caution over potential conflicts of interest.

The approval clears a major uncertainty clouding Tesla’s future and reinforces Musk’s position as both the visionary and lightning rod behind the company’s AI and robotics ambitions.

China’s AI Strategy Leans on Huawei Chip Clusters and Cheap Energy to Counter the U.S.

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China has found a powerful workaround to the U.S. chokehold on advanced semiconductors — combining Huawei’s massive chip clusters with abundant cheap energy to accelerate its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions.

While Nvidia remains the global gold standard for AI chips, U.S. export restrictions have cut China off from the American company’s most powerful processors. Yet, Chinese tech giants like Huawei, Alibaba, and DeepSeek continue to build large-scale AI models using domestically produced hardware.

At the core of this effort is Huawei’s Ascend series — less advanced than Nvidia’s GPUs individually, but competitive when linked together in vast, high-speed “clusters.” One example is the Huawei CloudMatrix 384, which connects 384 Ascend 910C chips to deliver performance rivaling Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, despite relying on five times as many chips.

“This approach leverages high-speed interconnects to compensate for weaker chips,” said Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research. “It suits China’s strengths — large-scale engineering and manufacturing.”

The tradeoff is power consumption. Huawei’s architecture demands far more energy than Nvidia’s — but China’s cheap and plentiful electricity turns that disadvantage into an asset. Supported by investments in solar, wind, and nuclear energy, as well as local government subsidies, Beijing has created a favorable environment for energy-intensive AI infrastructure.

“Less efficient chips are sustainable in China because energy is inexpensive and government-backed,” said Wendy Chang of the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Still, a structural weakness remains. Huawei’s chips are made by SMIC, China’s top semiconductor foundry, using older 7-nanometer tools that lag far behind TSMC’s cutting-edge technology. Export restrictions, especially on ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, limit China’s ability to close that gap.

“China’s main challenge isn’t scaling power or hardware clusters,” said Hanna Dohmen from Georgetown University’s CSET. “It’s whether they can keep up technologically as Nvidia and TSMC push performance forward.”

For now, though, Beijing’s combination of Huawei’s hardware muscle and low-cost power is proving enough to keep China in the global AI race.