DeepSeek lowers cost of AI adoption for firms across Southeast Asia: experts
Published: 9:45pm, 17 Feb 2025 DeepSeek 's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models have lowered the cost of adopting the technology for Southeast Asia 's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to experts, although many businesses still must contend with a lack of talent and outdated digital infrastructure. 'I think this [development] is quite a good thing for SMEs in Malaysia ,' Leo Liu Binxing, vice-president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said in a panel discussion at the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2025 event hosted by the South China Morning Post in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. 'These start-ups can get going [with] very, very low cost to pursue innovation.' With access to powerful models provided through cloud services, start-ups will 'only need to focus on their ideas', Liu said. Alibaba Cloud Intelligence is a unit of Alibaba Group Holding , owner of the Post. That positive assessment reflects the worldwide attention gained by start-up DeepSeek over the past few weeks for releasing two advanced open-source AI models, V3 and R1 , at a fraction of the cost and computing power that major tech companies typically require for large language model (LLM) projects. LLM is the technology underpinning generative AI services like ChatGPT and DeepSeek's namesake chatbot. Open source gives public access to a software program's source code, allowing third-party developers to modify or share its design, fix broken links or scale up its capabilities. Panellists in a discussion on artificial intelligence innovation at the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2025 event include, from left to right: Jacky Cheong, head of enterprise data governance at CelcomDigi; Sarah Lim, investment partner at OSK Ventures International; Leo Liu Binxing, vice- president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; and moderator Zhou Xin, technology editor at the South China Morning Post. Photo: Nora Tam
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
16 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
AI content detector: why does China dismiss it as ‘superstition tech'?
With the graduation season approaching, many Chinese universities have introduced regulations setting clear requirements for the proportion of artificial intelligence -generated content – or the 'AI rate', as it is called – in theses. Advertisement Some universities have used the AI rate as a deciding factor in whether a thesis is approved. The rule is intended to prevent academic misconduct, as educators have become increasingly concerned about the unregulated use of AI in producing scholarly literature, including data falsification and content fabrication, since the public debut of generative AI models such as ChatGPT However, an official publication of the Ministry of Science and Technology has warned that using AI content detectors to identify AI writing is essentially a form of 'technological superstition' that could cause many unintended side effects. AI detection tools could produce false results, the Science and Technology Daily said in an editorial last Tuesday, adding that some graduates had complained that content clearly written by them was labelled as AI-generated. Advertisement Even a very famous Chinese essay written 100 years ago was evaluated as more than 60 per cent AI-generated, when analysed by these tools, the article said.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong police to take down fake news report about Andy Lau resembling SCMP
Police will take down a fake news report purporting to be from the South China Morning Post about superstar actor Andy Lau Tak-wah being sued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority over his investment advice, the Post has learned. A police source said on Friday that the force's cyber security and technology crime bureau was handling the case and would take down the fabricated report as soon as possible. The website was designed to appear like the Post's. The fake article claimed the Monetary Authority had sued Lau over statements he made during a live broadcast, in which he shared his tips on becoming rich through a cryptocurrency trading platform, with a deposit of HK$2,000 (US$254) generating a million dollars in months. 'Give me 2,000 HKD, and with the Immediate FastX platform I'll make a million in 12 to 15 weeks!' Lau was quoted as saying in the article. 'This platform is the perfect solution for those who want to get rich quick. It's built on self-learning artificial intelligence, which exchanges cryptocurrencies for you.'
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
DeepSeek job ads call for interns to label medical data to improve AI use in hospitals
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek, which has remained mute over a release date for its R2 reasoning model, has begun recruiting interns to label medical data to improve the use of AI in hospitals. Advertisement According to recruitment ads posted on Boss Zhipin, one of China's largest hiring websites, DeepSeek is offering 500 yuan (US$70) per day for interns who can work four days a week to label medical data for applications involving 'advanced auxiliary diagnosis' tools. The jobs are based in Beijing. The intern roles are not listed on DeepSeek's official WeChat hiring channel. It is the first time that DeepSeek has publicly mentioned the need for 'medical data' in data labelling. The hiring notice on Boss said applicants should have medical backgrounds, and either be undergraduates in their fourth year or have a master's degree. As well, they need experience in using large language models (LLMs), and should be able to write Python code and write prompts for large AI models. DeepSeek did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A nurse moves a bed through a corridor at a hospital in Duan Yao autonomous county in Guangxi region, China, January 9, 2025. Photo: Reuters The move comes as Chinese hospitals embrace open-source AI models from DeepSeek to generate diagnoses and prescriptions. As of March, at least 300 hospitals in China have started using DeepSeek's LLMs in clinical diagnostics and medical decision support.
