AI Photo: VCG

Riding on the global fanfare over Chinese tech start-up DeepSeek, artificial intelligence (AI) has unsurprisingly become a buzzword at the China Development Forum (CDF) held in Beijing on Sunday and Monday, with international observers and multinationals speaking highly of China's AI contribution to the global economy while expressing full confidence in the world's second-largest economy.

"DeepSeek has created an ingenious way to make these models low cost, and its successes are very exciting, because it brings the cost of AI down. China's contribution to the development of AI is significant. There's a great deal of innovation in addition to DeepSeek. Many Chinese large language models are appearing right now. They're performing very, very strongly," Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, told the Global Times during the forum.

"China will definitely be a pioneer in the application of AI across the whole economy," Sachs said, highlighting the rapid uptake of Chinese AI systems in cities and economic sectors across China.

In its pursuit of high-quality development, China regards science and technology as the primary productive force, and relies on innovation to open up new areas in development and cultivate fresh driving forces, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

This year's Government Work Report said that China will advance integrated and clustered development of strategic emerging industries, carry out demonstration initiatives on the large-scale application of new technologies, products and scenarios, and promote the safe and sound development of commercial space, the low-altitude economy and other emerging industries.

"From a developmental perspective, a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation is underway. China has achieved notable progress in frontier areas like AI, new energy and advanced manufacturing. Meanwhile, the country's 'engineer dividend,' coupled with its large market and renewed capital investment in emerging industries, will provide substantial impetus to the economy," Jacky Zou, chairman-elect of KPMG in China, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the CDF.

"We are confident that the integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation in China will drive the economy toward greater prosperity," Zou said.

Amid China's continuous tech innovations over recent years, many multinationals have strengthened their confidence in China and are keen to explore new opportunities in the huge market. 

For example, German carmaker BMW recently said that it will work with Chinese tech giant Huawei to develop an in-car digital ecosystem specifically tailored for the Chinese market.

Jon Abrahamsson Ring, CEO of Inter IKEA Group, told the Global Times during the CDF that China is in many ways leading in the AI sector. "We have great development in some of our production techniques. AI is enhancing that as well," he said.

"Many foreign companies have tremendous experience in China, and they know how to develop innovation in China that they can take to other parts of the world. So, China is no longer an imitator, and China is now seen as an innovator," John Quelch, executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the forum.

As a result, there are a lot of multinational companies that are not only looking to China as a market but also as a source of innovation, Quelch said.

Amid growing competition in AI development, international observers also emphasized the need to enhance collaboration between China and the US in the field of AI.

"The competition is a healthy competition as long as it doesn't become militarized or turn into some hostility. But competition of who can build the better AI systems, that's healthy competition. And so far, it's leading to increased efforts by Chinese companies, by American companies, by Chinese scientists, by American scientists, and the whole world benefits from that kind of competition," Sachs said.

"DeepSeek, I have it on my phone. It's a smart app," Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University, told the Global Times at the forum. As for whether there will be a confrontation between China and the US in AI, Allison believes that China and the US will figure it out their ways. 

DeepSeek's AI model breakthroughs and China's other tech advancements have drawn a flurry of positive reactions from leading US tech firms, including its AI counterparts and leaders of tech giants.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described DeepSeek's R1 model as "impressive," particularly in its performance relative to cost. In response to this new competition, Altman announced that OpenAI would accelerate the release of improved models, Xinhua reported.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also joined the chorus of praise, acknowledging DeepSeek's "very, very good work" and suggesting that lowering AI costs benefits both Google and the broader AI industry.

China is an active advocate and practitioner of AI global governance, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during a regular press conference in January. 

"China will continue to work with all parties to embrace openness, connectivity and equality instead of building walls, decoupling and discrimination, and create an open, inclusive and non-discriminatory environment for AI development that is beneficial to all, and make sure that all countries can access the benefit of AI," Guo noted.