Local governments across China have rushed to apply artificial intelligence in their daily operations following the launch of the DeepSeek AI model, but it has generated mixed feelings from the public.
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Among the first adopters, the Futian district of Shenzhen announced on Monday that it had launched 70 AI-powered units with 11 types of functions including processing documents, scrutinising investment projects and assigning tasks to various departments, based on the DeepSeek-R1 model.
DeepSeek, which is based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, rocked the world with the launch of its AI reasoning model last month. It is fully open source, cheaper to train and operate than the world’s dominant models, comparable in competence and more friendly to Chinese users.
While US President Donald Trump called the DeepSeek AI leap a “wake-up call” for US tech, Beijing has hailed it a success of China’s innovation drive amid chip export sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.
Chinese state media has been quick to champion the private company as a national asset in the country’s competition for AI supremacy. DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng was invited to a symposium hosted by President Xi Jinping, alongside a handful of other entrepreneurs on Monday, when Xi encouraged them to push ahead with innovation to power China’s economic rise.
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Xi has also repeatedly called on governments at all levels to embrace big data and AI to improve governance and public services.