(03/2025) DeepSeek: Breakthrough Innovation or a Threat to Technological Balance?

“Techquake” — Fall of Icons

This article is part of a series of columns on artificial intelligence originally published throughout 2025 in Mreža magazine. Written from the intersection of psychology, business, and emerging technologies, these reflections aim to provide both practical insights and critical perspectives on the rapid evolution of AI and its broader social, economic, and ethical implications.
Each column captures a moment in time, while contributing to an ongoing conversation about how we understand, implement, and adapt to artificial intelligence — individually, organizationally, and collectively.

As many recent forecasts predicted, AI development continues to accelerate and is becoming increasingly unpredictable — some would even say chaotic. This was confirmed by a recent case that made global headlines and prompted a rapid response from media outlets, including those in Croatia.

At the start of this year, the Chinese research lab DeepSeek caused a major stir in the tech world with the launch of its advanced AI models. Their model, DeepSeek-R1, not only competes with top U.S. models, but reportedly outperforms them in certain aspects — all at a significantly lower development cost. This unexpected success triggered shockwaves in the market, including a loss of nearly…