DeepSeek engineer says open source is a race against time, and admits it adds safety risk

Why DeepSeek gives its work away

As BAAI Community reported, DeepSeek research engineer Gao Xi took the stage at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen on 3 November and answered a question many people ask: why publish hard-won research? His answer was that it serves the goal of AGI, short for artificial general intelligence, meaning AI that can match people across most tasks.

His framing of the race was blunt: "The opponent is not other companies, but time." He gave no forecast for when AGI arrives. He only said he would like it sooner, whether it was due in a dozen years or in one.

The logic of sharing early

Gao's example was a new method, such as a cheaper way to train a model. The fastest path, he said, is to publish it so others can discuss and test it. If someone else solves the same problem, DeepSeek can adopt their result quickly; if DeepSeek solves it first, sharing moves everyone forward.

Closing off work to block rivals might hold a lead for a while. But over a longer period, he argued, it only delays when society as a whole gets the benefits.

Admitting the risk

Gao also said open source can indeed magnify the safety risks of AI, and that DeepSeek is responsible for stopping that from happening. According to the reports, he mentioned grading models by risk but gave no details.

Other panelists went further. Alibaba's Qwen representative said open models can't be recalled once released and lack outside guardrails, since third parties can bypass built-in protections. He still argued for broader governance, including laws and industry standards, rather than limits on the models alone. MiniMax's representative said open models give users more control, because they can fine-tune and host them privately.

The rules in the background

On 16 October, Chinese ministries opened a consultation on revising the export-restricted technology list, with 23 of 40 proposed new items related to AI. Technology already released openly would fall outside the rules, but newly open-sourcing a restricted technology would require reporting first. The comment period ends on 15 November.

Reports say DeepSeek and MiniMax have already completed the related registration. Whether the final list widens or narrows the path for open releases is not yet known.