Tech in 2025: China’s AI ‘Sputnik moment’

The Chinese company DeepSeek has shocked the world with an AI model that could rival those built by the biggest artificial intelligence companies in Silicon Valley. For years it has been assumed that China’s AI companies were trailing in the wake of US rivals such as OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT. Murad Ahmed, the FT’s technology news editor, is joined by the FT’s China technology correspondent Eleanor Olcott to discuss whether DeepSeek’s model shows that China is catching up in the AI race, with expert analysis from Tiezhen Wang from AI open-source community platform Hugging Face. Free to read: How small Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley Why Nvidia investors are spooked by Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek OpenAI’s Sam Altman vows ‘better models’ as China’s DeepSeek disrupts global race This season of Tech Tonic is presented by Murad Ahmed, and produced by Persis Love. Edwin Lane is the senior producer and Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.