"Opportunity for Europe"

Hype surrounding DeepSeek shows that the AI race is wide open

The US company OpenAI is not without competition; numerous IT companies around the world are working on the ChatGPT killer.

(Bild: Art Gallery - stock.adobe.com)

Following the surprise success of the Chinese start-up DeepSeek, the German digital association Bitkom and economist Monika Schnitzer believe the race for the best artificial intelligence (AI) is wide open. Europe could also still shine.

"Germany and Europe have by no means lost the race when it comes to AI, we just have to stop warming up and start racing," said Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom Executive Board, to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

DeepSeek shows that the AI market is even more dynamic than expected. Neither the winners nor the losers have been decided yet. There is also no AI monopoly in the USA for a long time yet. "This is good news for the discussion about digital sovereignty in Germany and Europe," said Dehmel.

Economist Schnitzer takes a similar view. "This could be an opportunity for Europe," said the Chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts. "But it must also be seized." Something could be developed by throwing enormous resources at the problem, "like Big Tech is doing right now", said the government advisor in view of the enormous investments made by large US corporations. "But you can also try to take a smart approach." However, this would also require something else: smart and highly motivated people, a wealth of ideas, competitive pressure and a focus on specific applications.

Not a threat, but an opportunity
The US "Stargate" initiative - an AI investment offensive of half a trillion dollars (475 billion euros) announced by President Donald Trump last week - should not lead to a state of shock in Germany, demanded Bitkom expert Dehmel. "Nor should the news about DeepSeek now cause schadenfreude or euphoria," she added in view of the plummeting share price of chip manufacturer Nvidia due to cheaper Chinese AI competition.

"We will not make any progress with AI without our own efforts," Dehmel warned at the same time. "In addition to money and more support for European AI companies, this also means not always perceiving artificial intelligence as a threat first and foremost, but as an opportunity." The regulatory framework should be designed to be innovation-friendly so that AI development and application in Germany remain attractive and competitive. A year ago, the European Union passed the world's first comprehensive law on the regulation of artificial intelligence.

The AI assistant from Chinese start-up DeepSeek, which competes with ChatGPT, for example, showed surprisingly good results and met with great demand. This was despite the fact that it was presumably developed at a significantly lower cost and uses chips with lower performance. This triggered a stock market quake.