Thank you, Michael. It is amazing to see different approaches to the same technology. The core essence of culture, history, and attitude is, for me, the North Star of developments and innovations. The author has included it all along the way, which I can't often find in any U.S./Western writings. Moreover, it is always good to understand the developments on the other side of the world.
Afra, this was brilliant. The nuance here is rare and necessary—especially in a media climate that defaults to “us vs them” narratives. The idea that DeepSeek’s rise is less about state control and more about state-mediated acceleration feels like a key insight Western analysts continually miss.
The section on WeChat integration and municipal rollout was especially striking. The contrast between American philosophical AI debates and China’s utilitarian deployment (“emotional intelligence coaches,” “AI public servants”) really drives home the cultural divergence in adoption.
It’s also sobering to see how little DeepSeek is actually discussed on the ground, despite its geopolitical spotlight. That gap between elite narratives and everyday relevance is a powerful reminder of how different the tech world looks depending on where you stand.
Easily one of the most grounded and illuminating pieces I’ve read this year. Subscribed to Concurrent immediately.
Thank you for your positive and uplifting comment Anton. DeepSeek's commitment to open source and realization that innovation requires not being tethered to commercial incentives is to me hugely important and significant.
This is why I'm hoping Afra will one day do a deep dive into the founder as many of his ideas run fairly counter to the norms, bureaucracy, hierarchy and 996 most often associated with the competitive China tech industry. In my limited view, it's sometimes requires new kinds of entrepreneurs to start new movements not just with their technological contributions but with all the various human resources, recruiting, management innovations, and utilization of top talent in a surprisingly more organizational flat manner for agile thinking. That is reminiscent of how Nvidia differs also from BigTech. DeepSeek's innovation is also a credit to a different way of working, thinking about AI research and facing constraints of hardware and software with an open mind.
Hi Anton, I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments and feedback. It's very disheartening to see DeeSeek being portrayed merely as the embodiment of totalitarianism, without considering how real people use it within their specific real social context. Thanks for reading it again!
My pleasure, just wondering if Trump has a bigger goal in mind re China. Also on 'bigger' side is reality of true difference between 2 sides (values and such) and realities of work ethic...
One of the best pieces i have read lately. Thank you very much !!
Thank you WW, what did you like about the piece? I'm sure the author would love to know.
Thank you, Michael. It is amazing to see different approaches to the same technology. The core essence of culture, history, and attitude is, for me, the North Star of developments and innovations. The author has included it all along the way, which I can't often find in any U.S./Western writings. Moreover, it is always good to understand the developments on the other side of the world.
Thanks again that's exceedingly helpful feedback.
Afra, this was brilliant. The nuance here is rare and necessary—especially in a media climate that defaults to “us vs them” narratives. The idea that DeepSeek’s rise is less about state control and more about state-mediated acceleration feels like a key insight Western analysts continually miss.
The section on WeChat integration and municipal rollout was especially striking. The contrast between American philosophical AI debates and China’s utilitarian deployment (“emotional intelligence coaches,” “AI public servants”) really drives home the cultural divergence in adoption.
It’s also sobering to see how little DeepSeek is actually discussed on the ground, despite its geopolitical spotlight. That gap between elite narratives and everyday relevance is a powerful reminder of how different the tech world looks depending on where you stand.
Easily one of the most grounded and illuminating pieces I’ve read this year. Subscribed to Concurrent immediately.
Thank you for your positive and uplifting comment Anton. DeepSeek's commitment to open source and realization that innovation requires not being tethered to commercial incentives is to me hugely important and significant.
This is why I'm hoping Afra will one day do a deep dive into the founder as many of his ideas run fairly counter to the norms, bureaucracy, hierarchy and 996 most often associated with the competitive China tech industry. In my limited view, it's sometimes requires new kinds of entrepreneurs to start new movements not just with their technological contributions but with all the various human resources, recruiting, management innovations, and utilization of top talent in a surprisingly more organizational flat manner for agile thinking. That is reminiscent of how Nvidia differs also from BigTech. DeepSeek's innovation is also a credit to a different way of working, thinking about AI research and facing constraints of hardware and software with an open mind.
Hi Anton, I truly appreciate your thoughtful comments and feedback. It's very disheartening to see DeeSeek being portrayed merely as the embodiment of totalitarianism, without considering how real people use it within their specific real social context. Thanks for reading it again!
Great read... here's a story I saw in Epoch yesterday enforcing need to look at US/China or China/US from higher plane...
https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/beijing-doesnt-know-what-to-do-with-its-private-sector-experts-say-5826096?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy
Thank you for the link David.
My pleasure, just wondering if Trump has a bigger goal in mind re China. Also on 'bigger' side is reality of true difference between 2 sides (values and such) and realities of work ethic...