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Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

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DeepSeek versus ChatGPT for Māori

The introduction of the Chinese AI DeepSeek has been a popular media topic this week. Some of the topics include how much faster it is and how much cheaper it is to run. Concerns about how high-end computer chips were obtained by the Chinese company despite a trade ban on their expert to China from the USA and others warning that your data is not safe.

But the biggest wake up call for the western world was that America no longer have the international monopoly on the AI market. Nvidia – the company behind the high-tech chips that dominate many AI investments, that had seen its share price surge in the last two years due to growing demand – was the hardest hit on Monday. Its share price dropped by roughly 17% on Monday, wiping roughly $600bn off its market value.

 

Is DeepSeek better for Māori data?

Considering Māori, the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand make up about 20% country’s population and share the same concerns as other Indigenous Peoples in the world, it is important to consider how this impacts Māori.

Upon extensive testing of Māori knowledge and Māori language on both DeepSeek and ChatGPT, the output data is the same. DeepSeek does analyse and explain the outputs in more detail than ChatGPT, but it is obvious to me at this stage that they are using the same Māori data sets.

Māori should keep abreast of developments with DeepSeek due to its processing power which makes data outputs faster. Because of the speed, this means the system can ultimately process and learn with much more data than other AI systems.

We saw ChatGPT over a 2 year period be so inconsistent with Māori data sets and knowledge that it was too unreliable. Even the Māori language translations were of poor quality. Now two years later, ChatGPT is much more accurate with less colonial misinformation and translates the Māori language at a reasonable standard.

Considering this and the speed of DeepSeek, we could expect to see it far outperform ChatGPT impacting many aspects of Māori society, but in particular the Māori language sector and education.

 

Is your data safe?

The same data risks as any other AI system applies. It does not matter if it is American owned Google, Microsoft, ChatGPT or Chinese owned DeepSeek or Temu, the terms and conditions allow them to use your data for training and other purposes.

The decision of which is safer for you and or your organisation is one that you will need to decide for yourself.

If for what ever reason you don’t want your data with a Chinese company that ultimately allows the Chinese government access to that data, then I would suggest you do not use DeepSeek or Temu.

Likewise, if you don’t want your data with an American company that ultimately allows the American government access to that data, then I would suggest you do not use any of the American AI systems including CoPilot and ChatGPT.

It has been widely reported that DeepSeek is not providing information in political events that the Chinese government may not agree with such as Tiananmen Square and other events. At the same time, the new executive orders and changes with big tech in America we are seeing minorities more at risk. So there is a need to analyse the options.

 

Can we have our own sovereign AI?

The media are reporting there is shock at the speed and costs, with some claiming the costs are not factual. But many in the technical communities are not surprised at the speed and cost effectiveness of DeepSeek because it uses Open-Source technologies. President Trump has called it a ‘game changer’.

If we listen to the technical communities, the cost of creating a new AI system financially viable for others countries to also do the same. This is an opportunity for New Zealand to create their own AI system that is sovereign to New Zealand and to work with Māori and other minority communities for a safer and more accurate AI system that can be used in education, health and to boost our economies in other ways that are not currently possible.

DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

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