DeepSeek’s Dose of Reality for Macron’s AI Dream
America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates — to a fault.
Do cows lay eggs? Last weekend, as the big-spending US Stargate project and China’s more cost-efficient DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the artificial-intelligence world, this was the kind of question stumping French chatbot “Lucie.” She was awkwardly retired hours after her launch, having failed to deliver “AI with European values” just days before Emmanuel Macron’s AI Action Summit, effectively confirming Europe’s laggard status in yet another tech revolution.
Okay, this is a bit of a cheap shot. Europe clearly has strong startups like Mistral that don’t mistake cows for chickens. And DeepSeek’s example of doing more with less is a positive market signal for Europe, which has plenty of talent even if it attracts a fraction of the venture-capital investment of the US (16% versus 57% of global funding in 2024). The prospect of a multipolar AI world lifted continental tech shares like ASML Holding NV and SAP SE this week; from London to Paris to Berlin, the mood is a little brighter about the competition.