The success of the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek, which surprised the world, is attributed to China's educational system, which fosters competition among students, according to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Telegram.
According to a post on his Telegram channel by Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, he recently compared the educational systems of China and the West in terms of competition, following the success of DeepSeek. Durov noted, "Many people are surprised that China is quickly catching up to the United States in the field of AI after the success of DeepSeek, but the development of Chinese algorithm efficiency did not happen suddenly."
He stated, "Chinese students have long shown excellent results in international Olympiads in mathematics and programming," adding, "In producing talented individuals in mathematics and science, China's secondary education system is superior to that of the West." As a native of the former Soviet Union, he emphasized, "The Chinese educational system fosters fierce competition among students, which is borrowed from the highly efficient Soviet model."
He pointed out, "On the other hand, the majority of schools in the West inhibit competition and prohibit the disclosure of students' scores and rankings," adding, "While such measures may be understood as protecting students from pressure or ridicule, they fail to motivate the best students." He continued, "Victory and defeat are two sides of the same coin; eliminating losers also removes winners."
Furthermore, he noted, "The motivation for many students to achieve excellent results in high school comes from viewing it as a competitive game to rank first among strong opponents," adding, "Eliminating transparency regarding student performance can make schools feel meaningless to ambitious teenagers." He further explained, "It is not surprising that many gifted students find competitive games more interesting than academics because they can see rankings at least in video games."
Durov pointed out that while telling all students, regardless of their grades, "You are champions" may seem kind, the reality is that this illusion quickly shatters after graduation. He said, "Unlike benevolent school policies, it is a reality that results and rankings are disclosed in areas such as sports, business, science, and technology," noting that the AI benchmark proving DeepSeek's superiority is one of these public rankings. He added, "If there is no radical reform in the U.S. secondary education system, the increased dominance of China in the technology sector will be inevitable."