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Google DeepMind CEO claims China's AI advancements nearly match US
Demis Hassabis says China's AI models trail US and Western capabilities by 'months'
China's artificial intelligence (AI) models might be just "a few months" behind those in the US and the West, according to Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind.
This evaluation, from the leader of a top AI lab and a key contributor to Google's Gemini assistant, suggests a shift from the belief that China was way behind in AI development.
During a discussion on CNBC's new podcast, The Tech Download, Hassabis noted that Chinese AI models are more advanced and closer to those in the US and the West than predicted a year or two ago.
"Maybe they're only a matter of months behind at this point," Hassabis shared on The Tech Download.
Last year, China's AI center DeepSeek introduced a model that raised eyebrows in the market due to its impressive performance built with simpler chips and reduced costs compared to American counterparts.
Even as DeepSeek has rolled out subsequent models, and the initial surprise has diminished, major Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and startups such as Moonshot AI and Zhipu have unveiled highly competent models.
Still, according to Hassabis, while China may catch up, its companies haven't yet shown they can lead with groundbreaking AI innovations.
"The question is, can they innovate something new beyond the frontier? So I think they've shown they can catch up ... and be very close to the frontier ... But can they actually innovate something new, like a new transformer ... that gets beyond the frontier? I don't think that's been shown yet," Hassabis explained.