Will DeepSeek do what Apollo 11 did?

More than five decades ago, “moon landing” virtually made the Soviet Union squirm and finally froze it. The United States got what it wanted, the ability to humble the world’s other superpower through the right of being the sole “leader” of the space race.

Conspiracy theories aside, moon landing was not just for science’s sake. It can also be argued that Apollo 11 helped bring an uneasy “peace” to the world.

The situation then was like two neighbours are at serious odds and one of them suddenly proclaims that he has bought a gun. Ever since, there has been only verbal quarreling but nothing physical has taken place.

It’s a mini irony that the man who has reminded America that the days of using moon landing to enhance its world status are numbered is Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president has practically said that, now, whoever leads AI development will rule the earth, not who landed on the moon first.

Putin issued that warning long before China unleashed DeepSeek. The start-up AI company has rocked Wall Street like a nuclear bomb, sending stock prices of big-tech firms tumbling because the Chinese are basically saying that AI development will cost just a little and nowhere near what the American developers are thinking or telling the public.

New US President Donald Trump, who had proudly announced a highly-expensive joint venture with private business giants to ensure America’s “great future” in technology, is putting on a brave face, describing the Chinese innovation as a wake-up call but insisting that his country can still fight back.

By making US stocks plunge, the Chinese are striking at the heart of US wealth, which is either strong or fragile depending on how you see it.

Whatever America’s real financial status is, tech shares have been increasingly important to US capitalism, and technology is an essential part in Washington’s attempt to maintain its hegemony.

So, DeepSeek appears not just a business triumph, but also a major political victory. Apart from its military importance, AI is playing a progressively crucial role in disseminating ideologies.

Just as ChatGPT will never discredit America fundamentally, DeepSeek will never say China has the worst political and cultural systems in the world.

The global population will be hearing a debate on who is copying what. China could be on the receiving end of that kind of verbal showdowns, but if DeepSeek is a copy masterpiece, it demonstrates the virtue of copying and value-adding wisely.

That debate will not help America much. China will not care and neither will its AI. For years, Washington has been attacking copycats, much to the agreement of a big part of the world. DeepSeek is China saying that copycats can be smarter, and at a cheaper price as well.

Which brings us to the quality of education and human resources and the advantage of being able to innovate behind the iron curtains.

According to late US president Jimmy Carter, America has been more focused on using technological knowhow for military purposes, whereas Chinese mega construction and innovations that rely on new technology seem to benefit the public more. Yet when it comes to keeping big plans secret, China is better.

That DeepSeek emerges all of a sudden to shock the world underlines the advantages and disadvantages we are talking about.

Two weeks ago, much of the world still believed that the United States was leading in the AI development hands down.

Somehow, China’s remarkable achievements have not got the credit they deserved. It has managed to teleport a photon into the orbit. It could build a skyscraper in days. There have been numerous successes in digital frontier technologies like AI, 5G and cloud computing. Skyrocketing patent registrations have proved it.

The world just knows vaguely about China’s technological advancement concerning the development of quantum computing, solar energy, blockchain ability, space exploration, e-commerce, for example. Everyone knew the Chinese are good. Exactly how good, nobody knows.

What is not totally clear is how much US attempts to block China’s technological advancement played a role in the development of DeepSeek. Some analysts believe that trade barriers or total blockades left the Chinese with no choice but to try doing many things on their own.

It’s like “We can no longer get our hands on your chips? Fine. We will do it on our own”.

However, China and America competing on AI development is bad news for alarmists, who believe that AI is already dangerous without that kind of competition. This is what makes AI development different from moon landing. Nobody attempted to land on the moon after America declared its success, but that is largely because it was an enormously-expensive undertaking.

In other words, while the Soviet Union’s space programmes slowed down and then virtually halted because of Apollo 11, DeepSeek could make American scientists work harder and faster. Not just the Americans as well. And while human politics can keep the arms race somewhat in check, albeit nervously, rival AIs will not be motivated or dictated by political emotions.

Simply put, human natures can influence AI development, but only initially. If it’s totally down to AI itself, its hegemony will be ruthlessly quick, rhetoric-free and straightforward.

The situation now is like two neighbours are quarrelling and one of them suddenly claims he has bought a gun, but the other responds by showing he is dangerously armed, too. And they think they control the guns, not the other way round.