Ho Ching’s DeepSeek Post Gains Widespread Attention

SINGAPORE – A post shared by Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings and spouse of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, went viral recently after discussing the Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek. The post highlighted DeepSeek’s technology, which has disrupted the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape by offering a more affordable and data-efficient alternative to American-made AI.

Shortly after, the US government initiated an inquiry into whether DeepSeek had circumvented restrictions by acquiring AI chips from Nvidia through third-party sellers in Singapore. A Bloomberg article, quoting sources familiar with the investigation, revealed that the US authorities were concerned about potential violations related to the export of AI chips.

In response, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a statement on February 1, reaffirming the city-state’s commitment to the rule of law. They also echoed Nvidia’s statement that there is no evidence to suggest that DeepSeek had acquired any restricted products through Singapore.

Before these developments, a post by Ho Ching on Facebook, quoting a piece from Morgan Brown, Vice President of AI for Dropbox, gained significant traction. The post has been shared 868 times, with many users praising the clarity of the information. While some commenters appreciated the simple and clear explanation, others questioned the absence of the original source of the quote. Ho Ching clarified that she was citing someone else but did not credit the source, which led to a mix of praise and queries about attribution.

Morgan Brown’s original post, published on January 27 on platforms like X and LinkedIn, also gained widespread sharing, with users on social media passing it along without properly attributing it.

Continuing her interest in AI, Ho Ching shared a link on February 3 about Alibaba’s new AI model, Qwen2.5, which allegedly outperforms DeepSeek, ChatGPT, and Llama (Meta/Facebook). The former Temasek CEO remarked that the launch was a New Year’s gift from Alibaba, making her stance on the AI competition clear.