By Napoleon S Mawphniang
Emerging technologies like DeepSeek AI are worthy of awe and critical evaluation in this AI era where machines are taking the lead in determining how quickly humanity advances. As a worried citizen of India, especially from a state like Meghalaya that takes pride in its natural beauty, cultural legacy, and intellectual vigour, I believe it is important to ask questions about the consequences of these developments. DeepSeek AI is a representation of technological skill, with its bold assertions and innovative accomplishments. However, hidden under its shiny surface is a maze of ethical concerns, technical challenges, and societal ramifications that require our attention.
The Rise of DeepSeek AI
DeepSeek AI is a significant advancement in the development of large language models (LLMs), as described in its most current technical publications on models such as DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1. These models are expected to have reasoning powers that are unmatched due to their architectures, which have hundreds of billions of parameters, and their use of revolutionary approaches such as Multi-Head Latent Attention (MLA) and auxiliary-loss-free load balancing. They have been trained on trillions of tokens and optimized using the latest techniques, including FP8 mixed-precision frameworks and reinforcement learning.
The accomplishments are indeed remarkable:
• Reasoning Capabilities: DeepSeek-R1 promises to be able to compete with OpenAI’s o1 series in mathematical reasoning and logical challenges.
• Efficiency: DeepSeek-V3 has lower training costs than many other models, and it outperforms a lot of open-source models in benchmarks for coding, mathematics, and multilingual tasks.
• Distillation Techniques: Smaller models distilled from DeepSeek-R1 show impressive performance improvements, making advanced AI capabilities more accessible to everyone.
However, as we admire these accomplishments, we must consider the price that they come with. And perhaps more importantly, who is responsible for this expense?
The Ethical Dilemma
The emergence of artificial intelligence systems such as DeepSeek brings up serious ethical concerns. Meghalaya has a history of grassroots movements and community-centered governance, which provides a distinctive perspective for examining these challenges.
1. Data Sovereignty: DeepSeek-V3 was trained on 14.8 trillion tokens of data collected from around the world. How much of this data comes from Indian languages or indigenous knowledge systems? Are these contributions recognized or rewarded in any way? There is a danger that Meghalaya’s rich oral traditions and multilingual heritage will be taken without proper recognition or representation.
2. Algorithmic Bias: DeepSeek models have problems with mixing languages, even if they are said to perform better than other models in several languages.. This brings up questions regarding fairness in language. In a place like Meghalaya, where Khasi, Garo, Jaintia, and other languages are spoken alongside English and Hindi, these kinds of prejudices could push native dialects even further to the side.
3. Control and Accountability: Who is responsible for the implementation of such powerful systems? The reports highlight efficiency and performance, but they do not provide any methods for preventing misuse. Meghalaya has seen the consequences of unregulated mining industries on its environment. Could unregulated artificial intelligence lead to similar exploitation in the digital world?
The Devil is in the Details
DeepSeek’s technical advancements are impressive, however they do have several shortcomings:
1. Challenges in Reinforcement Learning: There are many problems associated with relying on reinforcement learning (RL) for reasoning capacities. The “aha moments” that are presented in the training of DeepSeek-R1-Zero demonstrate how unpredictable RL processes may be. Is it possible to trust systems that develop on their own without any explicit supervision?
2. Readability and Usability: DeepSeek-R1 has difficulty with readability and language coherence, even though its reasoning performance has improved. These constraints are important for a state like Meghalaya, which places a high priority on clear communication, whether in education or governance.
3. Energy Consumption: Training models like DeepSeek-V3 requires millions of GPU hours2. The reports highlight the cost-effectiveness in terms of dollars, but they do not take into account the effect on the environment. The unspoiled scenery of Meghalaya serves as a reminder that we should not sacrifice natural equilibrium in the sake of technological advancement.
What we can learn from India’s history
India’s history provides important lessons on how to balance progress with preservation:
• While the Green Revolution brought about technological improvements that changed agriculture, it also resulted in environmental degradation and socio-economic inequities.
• The IT boom made India a global powerhouse, but it also made the digital divide in the country worse.
In a similar vein, artificial intelligence technologies such as DeepSeek have the potential to create new forms of inequality between those who run these systems and those who are subjected to them.
Request for Responsible Innovation
As citizens of India, and more specifically as guardians of Meghalaya’s unique identity, we must insist on responsible innovation:
1. Inclusive Data Practices: Developers of artificial intelligence (AI) should work with local communities to make sure that the training data includes a variety of different people. For example, adding Khasi folklore or Garo proverbs could enhance models while also protecting cultural heritage.
2. Transparent Governance: Governments are required to create legal frameworks in order to monitor the development and use of artificial intelligence. The way that Meghalaya makes decisions by reaching a consensus could be a good example of how to implement participatory governance in the field of artificial intelligence ethics.
3. Sustainable Development: Developers ought to give precedence to energy-efficient structures and investigate renewable energy sources when training huge models. The hydropower potential of Meghalaya could be used to support sustainable AI research.
4. Public Awareness: It is necessary to inform citizens about the strengths and weaknesses of artificial intelligence. Schools and colleges in Meghalaya may implement curricula that integrate traditional knowledge with contemporary technologies.
The conclusion is that it is a future that is worth having. DeepSeek AI is both a challenge and an opportunity. We have arrived at a point in time where technology is advancing and culture is being preserved. We must now decide which direction to go in order to commemorate our past while still making progress toward the future. We must make sure that artificial intelligence is used to assist people, not the other way around.The foggy hills of Meghalaya remind us that we can make progress without sacrificing harmony. Instead of only looking for deeper intellect, we should be searching for deeper truths.
(The writer is Advocate , Trade Unionist and Humanist)