Telegram’s founder warns that the AI achievements of DeepSeek are only the beginning.
Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram, credits China’s rapid progress in artificial intelligence to its highly competitive education system, particularly its strong emphasis on mathematics and programming.
In a recent statement, Durov highlighted the intense competition fostered by China’s education system, drawing parallels to the efficient Soviet model. He contrasted this with Western educational systems, where competition is often downplayed to protect students’ feelings.
“Victory and defeat are inseparable. Eliminate the losers, and you eliminate the winners,” Durov stated in a Chinese New Year post.
Durov argued that while assuring all students of their success, regardless of their performance, might seem compassionate, this illusion quickly fades after graduation.
“Unlike well-intentioned school policies, reality features public grades and rankings – in sports, business, science, and technology,” he wrote, suggesting that a lack of transparency in student performance can diminish the importance of school for ambitious students.
“AI benchmarks showcasing DeepSeek’s superiority serve as one such public ranking. And more are on the horizon,” he cautioned.
“China’s advancements in algorithmic efficiency didn’t happen by chance,” Durov explained, citing Chinese students’ consistent success in international math and programming Olympiads.
China leads the US in cumulative medal counts at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), with 185 gold medals compared to the US’s 151, and 102 to 68 in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). Although the US narrowly defeated China in the 2024 IMO, ending China’s decade-long dominance, some critics attribute this to the disproportionate number of Asian students on the American team.
Durov’s remarks follow the success of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which developed an open-source reasoning model without access to cutting-edge US chips, and at a significantly lower cost. He warned that without substantial reforms in the US education system to promote competition and excellence, China’s technological dominance seems inevitable.