Speaking on a panel at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen on Tuesday, DeepSeek engineer Gao Xi defended the company’s commitment to open-source artificial intelligence to accelerate the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI), even if it heightens safety risks, amid growing US concerns and scrutiny in China over whether the strategy poses national security risks.

“If AGI is going to arrive in 10 years, then I hope we can bring this forward to one year. If it is going to arrive in one year, then I hope it can arrive tomorrow,” Gao said.