Chinese state-linked accounts hyped DeepSeek AI launch ahead of US stock rout, firm says
Chinese state-linked accounts hyped DeepSeek AI launch ahead of US stock rout, firm says
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Nvidia hit hard by China's DeepSeek
The company that lifted the tech industry and drove A.I. spending for the last several years, suffering the biggest one day wipeout of wealth in U.S. Monday.
Cheddar
Chinese state-linked social media accounts amplified narratives celebrating the launch of Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI models last week, days before the news tanked U.S. tech stocks, according to online analysis firm Graphika.
The accounts involved in the effort, including those of Chinese diplomats, embassies and state media, amplified media coverage of the launch and promoted the idea that DeepSeek challenged U.S. dominance in the AI sector, New York-based Graphika said in a report it provided to Reuters on Thursday.
The messaging was rolled out on platforms such as Elon Musk's X and Meta Platforms' META.O Facebook and Instagram, as well as Chinese services Toutiao and Weibo, Graphika said.
"This activity shows how China is able to quickly mobilize a range of actors that seed and amplify online narratives casting Beijing as surpassing the U.S. in critical areas of geopolitical competition, including the race to develop and deploy the most advanced AI technologies," Graphika Chief Intelligence Officer Jack Stubbs told Reuters.
"We've consistently seen overt and covert Chinese state-linked actors among the first movers in leveraging AI to scale their operations in the information environment."
Graphika said it also found a video featuring pro-China, anti-Western content on a YouTube channel whose activity resembled that of Shadow Play, a coordinated influence campaign involving at least 30 YouTube channels that was first identified by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2023.
YouTube owner Alphabet GOOGL.O, Meta, X and the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
DeepSeek disruption: Big Tech faces heat as China's DeepSeek sows doubts on billion-dollar spending
Graphika said it found a small spike in discussion about DeepSeek's advancements in relation to OpenAI's ChatGPT on X immediately after DeepSeek released its models on Jan. 20, followed by a much larger uptick that started on Friday and continued to build over the weekend.
By Monday, DeepSeek's free AI assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's AAPL.O app store and global investors dumped U.S. tech stocks, wiping $593 billion off chipmaker Nvidia's NVDA.O market value in a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street.
Nvidia declined to comment on the Graphika report.
DeepSeek's researchers claim to have developed aspects of their AI model at a far lower cost than U.S. rivals, sparking worries that U.S. companies that have plowed tens of billions of dollars into AI data centers could face a price war with China.
Shares of Microsoft MSFT.O, a major investor in OpenAI that operates data centers on behalf of the ChatGPT creator, slid earlier this week when it disclosed slower cloud revenue growth than Wall Street expected while it continued to plow billions into capital expenditures.
Microsoft and Meta have vowed to continue deep investments in AI for the foreseeable future.
DeepSeek's rise to prominence was celebrated in China as a sign that the nation was beating back Washington's attempts to contain China's tech industry with curbs on technology exports.
In the U.S., DeepSeek's accomplishments sparked accusations that it had improperly accessed technology from OpenAI and other leaders, though the allegations remain unproved.
The U.S. Commerce Department is looking into whether DeepSeek has been using U.S. chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, a person familiar with the matter said.
Reporting by Katie Paul in New York and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Himani Sarkar
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About breaking the monopoly that old institutions hold over human performance. "At the Enhanced Games, we are unapologetic: We're not backing down. We will fight — in the courts, in the public square, and in the arena of ideas — for every athlete who's been silenced, underpaid, or discarded." Read more: Congressional leaders call for streamlined visa process ahead of World Cup, L.A. Olympics Why are performance-enhancing drugs forbidden anyway? The list of health risks associated with taking anabolic steroids — which have no medical use approved by the U.S. government — is long and frightening: Advertisement Men may see their breasts and prostate gland grow and their testicles shrink. Women may get a deeper voice, grow body hair and lose hair on their head. Both men and women might tear tendons or develop liver tumors, severe acne, elevated blood pressure, heart problems, issues with anger and depression. The Enhanced Games say the competition will be under the supervision of a medical team, but by the time the games begin, damage from taking PEDs may have already developed. "Protecting athletes is our top priority," the Enhanced Games website proclaims. "Every competitor will undergo rigorous, state-of-the-art medical profiling before participating in the competition." How has the global sports community reacted? The first athlete to show results from using the Enhanced Games PEDs regimen is Kristian Gkolomeev, a Greek swimmer who never medaled in four Olympics. Advertisement In February, Gkolomeev swam two-hundredths of a second faster than the 50-meter freestyle world record with a time of 20.89. He wore an inline full-body open water suit that is prohibited by World Aquatics. "I'm kind of like the driver in the car, but I need the team behind me," Gkolomeev said during an Enhanced Games promotional event last month in Las Vegas. Greece's Kristian Gkolomeev competes in the Swimming Men's 50m Freestyle Semifinal 1 during the LEN European Aquatics Championships, at the Milan Gale Muskatirovic sports centre in Belgrade, on June 22, 2024. (Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images) Many believe that breaking records under the influence of PEDs is meaningless. Paul Ifrim, a Romanian Luger who finished 20th at the 2010 Winter Olympics, responded to D'Souza's LinkedIn post with this comment: "I earned my place at the Olympics through hard, clean work and unwavering dedication over the course of many years. Integrity, fair play, respect, and perseverance are what inspire and shape true athletes. Your argument for 'enhancing' drugs, viewed as 'athlete compensation,' is a disgrace to those principles. Advertisement "What message are we sending young, aspiring athletes? That cheating and cutting corners is a valid path to success? These are pathetic excuses for undermining the true spirit of competition. You're delusional for promoting this agenda. True athletes rise through grit and honor, not shortcuts and hypocrisy." Tygart, the CEO of USADA, had a similar reaction: "While those behind the Enhanced Games might be looking to make a quick buck, that profit would come at the expense of kids across the world thinking they need to dope to chase their dreams. We desperately wish this investment was being made in the athletes who are currently training and competing the real and safe way. "They are the role models this world so desperately needs and they are the ones who deserve our support — not some dangerous clown show that puts profit over principle.' A counterpoint was published last summer by anti-doping expert Michael Ashenden, who helped create the athlete blood passport system and develop a test for the blood-boosting drug Erythropoietin (EPO). Advertisement Initially opposed to the Enhanced Games, Ashenden changed his mind, writing that the failures of WADA to combat doping in the Olympics make an alternative viable. "Today I advocate for the concept of an Enhanced Games to co-exist with the Olympic Movement, provided their athletes do nothing illegal," Ashenden wrote. 'I realized that not following the WADA rules was not so radical after all....' "I acknowledge that by offering incentives for record performances, the Enhanced Games are tacitly encouraging the use of performance-enhancing substances. But by offering a gold medal, the Olympic Movement also incentivizes the use of performance-enhancing substances.... "Although it may be a bitter pill for the Olympic Movement, it was foreseeable that the commercialization of sport under their stewardship would create an environment that seeded a corporate disruptor." Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
