Despite the rise of China's DeepSeek AI, which has spurred industry-wide debate on competitive positioning, Alphabet's (GOOG, Financials) Google leaders remain confident in the company's artificial intelligence supremacy, CNBC said.

Chief executive of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, minimized DeepSeek's influence by stating the claimed training expenses of the Chinese artificial intelligence business are probably far less than the real expenditure. Furthermore, he said DeepSeek could have depended more on Western AI models and technology than it has revealed.

Emphasizing Google's ongoing commitment in creating sophisticated AI technologies, Hassabis said that its AI models are "more efficient" and "more performable" than those of DeepSeek. DeepSeek, he said, is China's most advanced artificial intelligence team to date, so its developments are important in security and geopolitics.

DeepSeek's AI model R1's January release immediately affected the market and helped to lower tech stock levels. After the revelation, Nvidia lost almost $589 billion in market value on January 27.

American tech firms such Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are still dedicated to large AI spending. Unlike DeepSeek, which has adopted a frugal approach, these companies have together set aside billions of dollars for artificial intelligence research and intend to keep this approach in 2025.

Google's changing AI ethical rules have caused staff worries meantime. Internal questions have been generated by changes to the company's AI values, especially with relation to AI use in surveillance or weaponry. Google's head of global affairs, Kent Walker, justified the change, saying that rigorous restrictions set in 2018, after Google's engagement in Project Maven, no longer fit the reality of today's artificial intelligence scene. Walker underlined that the growing presence of artificial intelligence in many sectors calls for a more adaptable legislative approach.