Baidu CEO Says AI Needs A Lot Of Funds Even Though DeepSee Sukses

JAKARTA DeepSeek managed to reduce costs in developing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) model, but this success could not be achieved by the entire company. According to Baidu, AI investment is still needed.

DeepSek was first founded in 2023, but its chatbot platform was popular earlier this year. This AI model shocked companies and governments from various countries, particularly the US, for being able to compete with ChatGPT at relatively low costs.

This success was a concern for investors who spent a lot of money to support AI development. However, Baidu, who is also from China, believes that AI development still requires large funds.

Baidu CEO Robin Li, at the World Governments Summit, said that investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure is still very much needed. This is because companies and institutions need adequate computing to develop AI.

"Investments in cloud infrastructure are still urgently needed. To produce smarter models than others, you should use more computing," Li was quoted as saying by Reuters on Wednesday, February 12.

Simply put, the more sophisticated AI developed, the greater the need for computing. AI makers will need hardware resources that can make AI models work, process information, conduct data training, and more.

Although Li seems to believe that AI innovation is still expensive, the Baidu leader said that DeepSeeek's popularity shows that technology always innovates. In addition, technology is unpredictable.

If asked why DeepSek is capable of cost efficiency, Li explained that computational limitations have made various companies in China develop at minimal costs, including DeepSek. At least DeepSek's success could encourage more companies to achieve progress.

"You don't know when and where innovation came from," said Li. "If you open it (open source approach), many people will be curious enough to try it out. This will help spread technology more quickly."