Artificial intelligence developments are endless, and competition among global companies operating in this field is fierce, particularly American and Chinese companies. To gain a closer look at these developments, we decided to contact officials within these companies to provide us with a closer look.
It all began with the Chinese company DeepSeek, founded in May 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a prominent figure in the hedge fund and artificial intelligence fields. The company generated widespread interest worldwide after successfully developing advanced open-source models designed for programming tasks at competitive prices. It also implemented ambitious AI projects without pressure, allowing it to prioritize research and development and threaten the thrones of major companies.
The company’s DeepSeek-R1 model, for example, demonstrates that China is not out of the AI race, but may dominate it. By launching competitive models for all, Chinese companies can increase their global influence and potentially shape international AI standards and practices. Open source projects also attract global talent and resources to contribute to AI development in China.
In an interview with digital economy platform FollowICT, Karl Zhao, Gen AI consultant at DeepSeek, discusses his vision for the future of AI, its potential impact on the job market, DeepSeek’s achievements, and his advice for those looking forward to developing their skills to keep up with AI rabid developments.
FollowICT: Could you please tell us how did you began your journey in the AI field?
Karl Zhao: I started in the AI field 10 years ago when I worked as a lead system architect in DirectTV later bought by AT&T. Then I acted as head of engineering at OpenX one of the largest independent ad-exchange in US for emerging formats – header bidder, mobile app and video. We leverage AI/ML for to target the right ads for specific users. After OpenX, I joined CloudMinds – a unicorn startup backed by Softbank vision fund leading research and development of AI & Robotics end-to-end cloud to device software.
FollowICT: What did attract you to work at Deepseek? And what does your day-to-day role there look like?
Karl Zhao: The open-source nature of DeepSeek attracts me actively involved in the DeepSeek AI community. I work closely with DeepSeek ecosystem partners to help companies to build applications on top of DeepSeek foundation models mostly in B2B space.
FollowICT:From your perspective, where do we currently stand in the development of AI?
Karl Zhao: For GenAI, we saw rapid advancements since the inception of ChatGPT. However, for the GenAI adoption in the B2B space, it is still at the beginning. Beside that, the traditional AI applications are still rule-based and complex business logics are implemented in software, often through a fairly long development, testing, deployment, field trial cycle before making it available for end users at scale. AI Agents can leverage the advanced reasoning capabilities of LLMs to automatically break down the problem into smaller and manager tasks or jobs. It can complete the development, testing, deployment with the assistance of the SWE, SWET and SRE Agents to cut down the development cycle. Even for field trial, with the use of digital twin and simulation technology, it can be done much more cost-effectively and in a much shorter time.
FollowICT:How do you see AI Agents shaping the job market in the next 3 to 5 years?
Karl Zhao: The AI Agents will replace knowledge-based roles as we define today in the next 3 to 5 years if not sooner. According to Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta is anticipating to use AI Agents to replace mid level engineers by mid 2026, about a year from now. However, many more new jobs that do not exist today will be created. So it is crucial for professionals to up-skill quickly to stay relevant in a dynamically changing job market.
FollowICT: Based on your your experience, what are the main ethical or technical challenges for building and deploying autonomous AI Agents?
Karl Zhao: It shall follow Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics”. The technical challenges are fragmentation in the market that requires standards. The open source can be one way to ensure convergence.
FollowICT: Would you recommend startups or individuals to start using AI Agents today?
Karl Zhao: Yes, three high impact areas to consider are software development, knowledge management and data analysis. Start small, automate repetitive tasks, learn as you go, and prioritize ethics.
FollowICT:Deepseek has been gaining a lot of attention lately. Can you share the company’s vision for the future of AI?
Karl Zhao: DeepSeek achieves what OpenAI sets out to do but fails to fulfill building an open source platform). Go to the company’s website, it is public. DeepSeek walks the walk and talks the talk.
FollowICT: Are there any tools or projects at Deepseek specifically focused on developing AI Agents?
Karl Zhao: The focus is frontier foundation models, but advanced model capability, such as reasoning coupled with cost effectiveness is crucial for developing AI Agents that can be available for every business and eventually for every consumer.
FollowICT:Do you envision a future where we all have personal AI agents that understand us and manage our lives—similar to what we see in sci-fi movies?
Karl Zhao: It is already happening. I used to work for a SoftBank vision fund backed unicorn start-up CloudMinds for six years. Many customers were astonished after seeing GenAI embodied in robots in action. Their exact comments are often that they felt that what they see in sci-fi movies came to life in the real-world.
FollowICT: What advice would you give to someone who’s just getting started in the AI realm?
Karl Zhao: I Don’t believe in the status quo, be humble, be hungry, but be bullish and be bold at the same time. Always challenge yourself, how can you be 10 times in the near term and 100 times eventually more efficient than the old way of doing things.
