On Jan. 20, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, released its chatbot named R1, which suddenly rose to become Apple’s App Store’s No. 1 downloaded app in the United States.
The startup claims it only cost $6 million to make, compared to the sometimes hundreds of millions spent by U.S. companies on their AI models.
After the release of DeepSeek R1, Nvidia stock market value nose dived as investors started wondering if their chips were still needed for the best AI.
DeepSeek became big deal, because it was made way cheaper than its competitors, like ChatGPT
Indeed, to best the Chinese in AI technology, the United States has for several years, blocked Silicon Valley’s highest-in-its-class AI chips from being exported to China, so the US can get ahead. US investors had thought the more money they sunk into these advanced chips and AI technology, the bigger and better their AI models could be, until DeepSeek.
Chinese designers were out of necessity, discovered much cheaper and more efficient processes to train their AI without needing the best computing power in the game.
DeepSeek openly bests ChatGPT in performance features. As open-source AI, developers can tweak it and build upon it to fit much more specific needs unlike ChatGPT. DeepSeek AI is great and better capable at technical tasks like coding and complex problem-solving situations, it has faster response times for structured queries, a more cost-effective pricing model, and a greater emphasis on logical reasoning and detailed explanations for technical answers.
DeepSeek’s pricing structure is more affordable with some versions even being completely free, compared to ChatGPT,
ChatGPT however, is known to excel in creative writing, general conversation, and possess broader database and knowledge base about the West. ChatGPT also offers more detailed explanations and better documentation, making it ideal for learning and complex implementations.
Politically sensitive topics will be DeepSeek AI’s major limitations because of the Chinese government content moderation policies
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