From the Deep State to the Deep Seek

A New Inauguration, A New Problem

Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, marked his second take to redefine the American political landscape. In just one week, Trump has already tackled more pressing issues than Joe Biden managed in four years, setting a decisive tone for his new term. His administration has wasted no time addressing critical challenges, reaffirming his commitment to reshaping the country. Central to his agenda is his focus on rooting out the "deep state"—bureaucratic forces allegedly obstructing transparency—a cornerstone of his presidency.

However, while battles against entrenched government networks persist, a new and more significant threat has emerged: artificial intelligence. At the forefront of this challenge is DeepSeek, China’s rapidly rising AI chatbot.

DeepSeek and the Stock Market Ripple

The launch of DeepSeek has already sent shockwaves through global markets, as Nvidia’s stock price dropped in response. This plunge reflects the growing influence of China’s AI advancements and highlights a startling economic reality: DeepSeek reportedly cost only $5–6 million to train, compared to the $100 million required for OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4. This stark difference demonstrates the rapid accessibility of cutting-edge AI technology.

From Innovation to Entitlement

DeepSeek exemplifies a broader transformation in how society perceives technology. Tools and systems that once seemed transformative are now seen as entitlements. The rise of universally accessible platforms has normalized the expectation of instant access to technology and information.

Where I currently live in Southeast Asia, bookstores and libraries are rapidly closing down. This reflects a broader trend in developing nations, where many are hurdling over the incremental steps of technological and social evolution that more developed countries once experienced. These incremental steps—such as a gradual transition from physical media to digital, or building a societal context for new technologies—allowed developed nations to adapt more seamlessly to innovations like AI. However, much of Southeast Asia is leaping directly into advanced technologies like DeepSeek, often without the same historical or ethical grounding to appreciate their full implications.

This entitlement to information is evident in the closures of physical spaces for knowledge worldwide, as digital convenience replaces them. Platforms like DeepSeek and ChatGPT epitomize this trend, offering accessibility so ubiquitous it is no longer perceived as exceptional. These tools are filling the aperture of accessibility, ensuring that information, ideas, and intelligence are always within reach.

As these technologies become cheaper and more widespread, their perceived value declines. AI-driven tools for creativity, design, and problem-solving will soon be as mundane as smartphones, signaling a movement toward technological equality, where access is universal, and innovation is unremarkable.

The Industrialization of Intelligence

The rise of DeepSeek also marks the industrialization of thought. Unlike search engines that merely retrieve data, AI systems now solve complex problems and generate creative ideas. As development costs plummet and capabilities expand, the value of information itself is being eroded.

Ironically, a tool named DeepSeek—evoking the notion of going deeper—appears to be spearheading a race to the bottom. In this race, the abundance of information steadily devalues what was once precious. Knowledge, like industrial goods before it, is transitioning from handcrafted exclusivity to mass production and accessibility.

The Race to the Bottom

As AI systems like DeepSeek proliferate, the race to the bottom accelerates. The ability to generate ideas and solutions faster and cheaper is fundamentally reshaping economies and industries. Humanity’s “attention economy,” which prizes the ability to capture focus, is itself threatened. As AI tools produce infinite variations of content, even the value of attention may collapse.

The question is no longer whether humans will remain relevant but how soon irrelevance will arrive. AI already outpaces humans in fields like design, science, and art, raising the unsettling prospect that human contributions may soon be unnecessary.

The Human Crisis of Irrelevance

Beyond economics, the rise of DeepSeek presents an existential challenge. When machines dominate creativity, problem-solving, and even thought, what remains of human identity? If AI renders originality obsolete, what defines our value in a world where every conceivable idea has already been generated?

This crisis extends beyond the workforce to the core of humanity’s sense of purpose. The boundary between human and machine intelligence blurs, and with it, the very essence of what makes us distinct.

A Geopolitical Battleground

On the global stage, DeepSeek underscores the intensifying competition between the United States and China. With training costs dramatically lower than ChatGPT-4, China’s ability to develop advanced AI at scale challenges American dominance in the tech sector. This is not just about innovation but about power—whoever controls these tools will shape the future of economies, cultures, and security.

For Trump, this represents a critical challenge. While combating the deep state has symbolic significance, addressing the rise of DeepSeek demands practical action. America’s leadership in AI will require unprecedented investment, regulation, and innovation.

The Mirror AI Holds to Humanity

In the end, DeepSeek is not just a technological story; it’s a human story. As AI races to the bottom, so does humanity. While artificial intelligence evolves, human intelligence is forced to keep pace. The more this race accelerates, the more we risk rendering ourselves irrelevant.

When infinite knowledge and endless variations of ideas are available at a moment’s notice, the value of information itself vanishes. AI, in effect, places a global think tank in the palm of every hand, leaving human contribution increasingly insignificant.

Though the timeline remains uncertain, the trajectory is clear. DeepSeek and its counterparts force humanity to confront a profound transition: as technological equality becomes the norm, we must redefine human purpose. If we fail, we risk becoming spectators to our own obsolescence.

The challenge is not merely to regulate or control AI but to evolve alongside it. Humanity’s future depends on whether we can embrace this partnership—or allow ourselves to be eclipsed by it.