The Chinese startup DeepSeek has rattled Silicon Valley’s confidence in the United States’ lead in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. DeepSeek’s first free Chatbot App became the most downloaded app on the iOS App Store as well as on the Google Play Store by the end of January. 

These developments come ahead of the French AI Action Summit, which will take place from February 10 to 11 and convene Heads of State and Government, leaders of international organizations, tech companies, NGOs, as well as academics, and members of civil society.

Johannes Heller-John talks to Rebecca Arcesati, Lead Analyst at MERICS based in Brussels, about the issues behind DeepSeek’s meteoric rise and expectations for the AI Action Summit. In her view, “France has an opportunity to show that there is a European way that is a middle way between a corporate driven approach that has emerged in the United States and a more state driven approach that has emerged in China.”

Artificial Intelligence is one of the topics featured in the MERICS China Tech Observatory, a project sponsored by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).