Russian TV falls for fake report claiming DeepSeek used ‘Soviet code’

Russian state TV mistakenly reports satirical story about AI technology linked to the Soviet Union, igniting national pride.

A satirical news piece that emerged from a Russian fake news website has unexpectedly made its way onto state television, sparking a wave of nostalgia in Russian society for the Soviet Union’s once-dominant technological prowess.

DeepSeek’s latest AI offering has drawn global attention for its low-cost model - at just $6 million against global average of billions of dollars. (REUTERS)

The story, first published by 'Panorama', a self-styled satirical news outlet known for its fictional content, featured a fabricated interview with Liang Wenfeng, the founder of China’s DeepSeek AI startup.

The interview, which was entirely fictional, claimed that DeepSeek's advanced AI technology was based on a secret Soviet-era code created in 1985 by a team of programmers led by Viktor Glushkov, a renowned Soviet scientist.

Glushkov, often credited with creating the first Soviet personal computer in the 1960s, is also said to have developed a data-processing network intended to manage the Soviet planned economy - an effort that some Russian experts believe had early elements of artificial intelligence.

The fake story went viral and was reported by the Rossiya One national state television channel as if it was a genuine news item. It was also picked up by influential social media accounts.

"Not only was the Soviet Union the most educated and advanced country. The Soviet Union was a scientific and technological civilisation," veteran Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said in a post on messaging app Telegram that was later removed.

Russia ranks only 31st out of 83 countries for AI implementation, innovation, and investment according to UK-based Tortoise Media's Global AI Index, trailing not only the United States and China but also fellow BRICS members India and Brazil.

Russia, which has two major domestic AI models, is eyeing closely China's successes in artificial intelligence as the latest DeepSeek models, released last month, have upended the global tech landscape.

What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek’s latest AI offering has drawn global attention for its low-cost model - at just $6 million against global average of billions of dollars. Further, DeepSeek’s R1 used a fraction of compute power as compared to established AI models like ChatGPT.

DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple’s Appstore, as the US tech industry - that has long-justified injecting billions of dollars into AI investments - watched in sheer disbelief last week.