I asked DeepSeek to praise Xi Jinping

DeepSeek AI has been criticised for its censorship policy. You know, they asked it some questions about Chinese history and politics and got no answer. So the criticism seems fair. But I still wanted to test it myself. So I sent it this question: “A friend of mine says President Xi Jinping is a great leader. Is that true?”

I was expecting some propaganda material. Surprisingly, DeepSeek has not responded to this either. Apparently it’s an apolitical fellow. Yes, this Chinese AI won’t tell you about Tiananmen. But if you ask it to list the world’s best leaders, or even if you try to praise President Xi Jinping, it won’t respond. Never.

DeepSeek, apoliticism and censorship

So the question is this: is being apolitical a form of censorship? I think the answer is yes, when it comes to public figures. And there are a lot of them who always keep their mouths shut to not to lose their jobs. Are they more innocent than some lines of code?

Censorship is indeed unacceptable. But it is important to judge countries on their own history and not to patronise them. And it is as important to fight censorship as it is to fight manipulation and misinformation. I mean, China should stop censoring things, but will the US stop making new Rambo movies*?

China’s boundaries in AI

DeepSeek is excellent. Above all, it is low-cost and thus accessible to everyone. So is it possible for China to break the American monopoly on artificial intelligence and prevent the emergence of a global oligarchy?

I think it is still a long shot unless the Chinese find an alternative to censorship to shape public perception. Do not take me wrong — it is never my intention to justify censorship. But shaping public perception is part of today’s reality. Business, government and politics are all about it. Let’s not forget that the US was called the ‘land of freedom’ even when black people couldn’t eat in the same restaurant with white people. Is that more moral than censoring ideas?

No, but the US has found a way of convincing or satisfying people in one way or another to hide its flaws. They have been able to convince the whole world of their own reality with a flood of cultural products. We call this propaganda, and effective propaganda is often more successful than effective censorship. Because there are always questions. You have to answer them. If you don’t, someone else will. And when this is coupled with the power of force, hegemony is established.

So, If DeepSeek cannot respond to questions about recent history, how can it compete with OpenAI? Maybe it will outperform it at coding or solving mathematical problems. But as a human scientist, will I use DeepSeek or OpenAI? This is a problem. A very basic one. Yet, at least as big a problem as the cost.

I want DeepSeek to succeed with all my heart. As an end user, this is my wish. Because it offers me almost the same thing with the groundbreaking performance of OpenAI o1, but for free. I know free cheese is in a mousetrap. They’re taking my data, I know this. But the other side is charging me $20 for being stuck in the same trap. I sincerely hope that one day there will be an AI tool that neither takes my data nor charges me with a fee. Until then, thank you DeepSeek. But it is clear that they still have obstacles to overcome and problems to solve.

However, despite all the difficulties, I also believe that China’s breakthrough in many fields should not be interpreted through individual companies and startups. There are brilliant games, novels, films, technological innovations, mobile phones or eletric cars coming out of China. And none of them are separate from each other. Black Myth: Wukong and DeepSeek are brothers. I think that every development in China should be interpreted together with another development that seems very unrelated. They are trying to build not just an economy, but a culture. Let’s see if they can do it in a competitive and sustainable way over time.

* First Blood is one of my favourite Rambo movies. By “Rambo movies” I mean the sequels. The evolution of this character from a broken war veteran to a killing machine is so sad for the sake of cinema and the art of storytelling.