Why Britain should reject the lure of cheap – and scary – Chinese AI

Models such as DeepSeek allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence. Photograph: GK Images/Alamy

There is much to fear from artificial intelligence developed in China and handed to businesses and governments in the west almost free of charge.

Every month Chinese AI developers such as DeepSeek and Xiaomi dispatch the latest versions of their “open-weight” models that allow users to take the core software and use it without paying an expensive ongoing licence.