Chinese AI is a risk for Europe. So is shunning it

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. ON JANUARY 20TH 2025 DeepSeek was an obscure hedge-fund-turned-tech-startup from Hangzhou. Within a week it had become the byword for a new wave of Chinese innovation, after launching an artificial-intelligence model as capable as Silicon Valley’s bleeding edge but much cheaper to build and run.

Having slugged it out in China’s cut-throat domestic market over the past year, DeepSeek and its homespun rivals are looking abroad for profits. They will not find the largest ones in America, increasingly out of geopolitical bounds, or the poorer global south. That leaves Europe as the likely recipient of their attention.

To the old continent, new technology from China may seem like a curse. Chinese electric vehicles are already eating German and French carmakers’ Wurst and frites. Several EU countries have tried to restrict access to DeepSeek’s chatbot over fears that it might shunt data from European companies and citizens to China.

No one wants to rely on a geopolitical adversary for what is fast becoming critical infrastructure. These worries are legitimate. But in the case of AI, China may, if embraced wisely, be a blessing for Europe.

There are three reasons why European firms should welcome this Chinese onslaught. First, Chinese models are nearly as good as the best that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google can offer—which for most users is good enough. Demis Hassabis, Google’s AI supremo, has said that Chinese AIs are only “a matter of months" behind American ones.

Like DeepSeek, most cost nothing to access and relatively little to operate. This cost advantage comes from their openness—the second reason why they ought to appeal to European firms. In contrast to proprietary black boxes peddled