India IT Minister Praises DeepSeek's Low-Cost AI, Compares It with Own Investment Approach

India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has praised Chinese startup DeepSeek for its low-cost AI assistant, likening its frugal approach to India's efforts to build a localized AI model. DeepSeek's app surpassed ChatGPT as the most popular free app on the Apple App Store, highlighting the demand for affordable AI solutions.

DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model was developed in just 55 days on 2,048 Nvidia H800 GPUs at a cost of $5.5 million, a fraction of the $100 million spent on OpenAI's GPT-4. This achievement challenges the notion that significant investment is necessary for AI development and has implications for India's AI mission and other countries' AI strategies.



India announced a $1.25 billion AI investment in March, dubbed IndiaAI mission, which includes funding for AI startups and developing its own AI infrastructure. DeepSeek's success could inspire India and other countries to explore more cost-effective AI solutions, potentially reducing their dependence on expensive hardware and high-end GPUs.

Moreover, the US's restrictions on GPU exports to other nations, including India, make DeepSeek's cost-effective solution even more appealing. The US's restrictions on GPU exports could compel India and other countries to look at China for an answer, as DeepSeek's success demonstrates that large language models do not necessarily depend on high-end hardware.

In conclusion, DeepSeek's low-cost AI model challenges the prevailing notion that significant investment is necessary for AI development and has implications for India's AI mission and other countries' AI strategies. Its success could inspire countries to explore more cost-effective AI solutions, potentially reducing their dependence on expensive hardware and high-end GPUs.