OpenTensor Foundation Co-Founder Highlights DeepSeek's Impact on Centralized AI

According to Odaily, Ala Shaabana, co-founder of the OpenTensor Foundation, highlighted that the release of DeepSeek was achieved at a fraction of the cost required for leading models, reinforcing the position of open-source AI as a significant challenge to centralized projects. Shaabana noted that DeepSeek questions the centralized AI model, which involves development and training costs running into tens of billions of dollars. He stated, "DeepSeek has established a truly high-performance model in a more open and collaborative manner. It demonstrates that factors like efficiency, collective intelligence, and innovation can indeed rival sheer financial power." Shaabana attributed the rapid advancement of open-source AI and the narrowing gap with centralized systems to a procedural shift in academia, which now requires researchers to include their code in papers submitted for journal publication. He further mentioned that increased regulation of centralized systems, including potential geographic data restrictions due to geopolitical tensions, could impose additional burdens on centralized AI projects. The regulatory costs and burdens resulting from strengthened oversight are expected to widen the gap between centralized and open-source systems, as open-source systems are less susceptible to these constraints.