Why the future of AI may be open (and Chinese) | Business and Economy

The release of DeepSeek’s R1 – China’s powerful new open-source AI model – has sent shockwaves through the global tech industry. Offered for free and royalty-free, it has disrupted financial markets, challenged the United States’ dominance in artificial intelligence, and prompted fears that Silicon Valley’s tightly guarded business model may no longer hold.

DeepSeek’s open-source launch is widely seen as a key trigger behind a trillion-dollar tech sell-off in the US, signalling…