Image credit: The Byteline

Despite the cost-efficient AI models introduced by Chinese startup DeepSeek, Baidu CEO Robin Li emphasized the ongoing necessity for heavy investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure.

Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Li said, "The investment in cloud infrastructure is still very much required. In order to come up with models that are smarter than everyone else, you have to use more compute."

Compute, in AI terminology, refers to the hardware capabilities needed for processing data, training models, and generating outputs.

Li's remarks follow DeepSeek's impressive demonstration of language models that perform comparably to OpenAI's GPT with far less computing power, sparking discussions on the efficiency and scale of AI infrastructure investments.

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Baidu, an early adopter in China's AI race post-ChatGPT, launched its Ernie model, which it claims rivals OpenAI's GPT-4 in capability. However, Ernie has not achieved widespread public use. Li has previously expressed skepticism about China producing another company like OpenAI and favored closed-source models for AI development.

At the summit, Li reflected on DeepSeek's rise, noting, "You just don't know when and where innovations come from," highlighting the unpredictable nature of technological breakthroughs. He admitted that constraints in computing resources have pushed Chinese firms towards cost-effective innovations.

Li seemed to adjust his previous views on AI development models. He now sees value in open-source approaches, stating, "If you open things up, a lot of people will be curious enough to try it. This will help spread the technology much faster," indicating a potential shift in strategy to foster broader AI adoption.

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