DeepSeek Democratises AI But Poses Fresh Threat To White Collar IT Jobs: Manish Chokhani

Chinese generative AI platform DeepSeek has democratised artificial intelligence through its novel AI assistant programme, but poses a fresh threat to jobs in fields where India has an edge, according to market veteran Manish Chokhani.

"This is disruption at its best," the director of Enam Holdings told NDTV Profit in a televised interview on Tuesday.

"You take algorithms, data and computational power to get outcomes. Data is agnostic and Nvidia was adding computing power. But DeepSeek algorithm is better, open source and powerful just like how Google put out with Android," he said.

Chokhani noted that instead of pushing more computing power, thereby using more energy, DeepSeek has advanced algorithm and its open availability makes it accessible.

DeepSeek released its AI model as open-source, meaning the company allowed researchers, developers, and other users to access the underlying code to use, modify, or improve.

"Now, this looks like a gamechanger. AI might do to white collar workers what advent of machinery did to blue collar," the market veteran said.

He expressed concern over the rapid technological advancement in AI over the next five years and its impact on jobs.

"How we cope with it in India matters because in the short term, IT and GCCs will make money. But in the long term, it is a concern," he said, referring to global capability centres that have sprung up in the country to support multinational companies.

Chokhani also said that India has been a bystander in the global AI race between the US and China, and a mere vendor of code for Western clients. But he now expects the government's AI and manufacturing push through production-linked incentives to make up for some of the gap.

Watch: Manish Chokhani Speaks On DeepSeek Impact, Market Correction And More