Even if you’re remotely interested in generative artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence in general, you would have caught a whiff of DeepSeek, the latest AI-powered chatbot to hit the internet. However, unlike most chatbots that we know, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, this one originates from China. Shortly after its release, it has risen to the most downloaded free app ranking on Apple‘s App Store. There’s a big promise behind DeepSeek, and it involves keeping costs significantly lower compared to its US counterparts. This approach may have left its American competitors worried and has certainly caused a stir in financial markets.
For context, DeepSeek, the company, claims that it only had to spend around $6 million to create the experience, unlike companies like OpenAI, who have reportedly been spending billions to advance in the field of generative AI and create something like ChatGPT.
Where is DeepSeek based? Who made it? How is it different from ChatGPT? And are US companies affected? Here, we answer all of these questions.
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What is DeepSeek?
For those uninitiated, DeepSeek is a company based in China and, more specifically, Hangzhou. The company is relatively new because it was founded just in July 2023. The company ended up finally releasing its DeepSeek AI bot on the Apple App Store for free on 10 January. The company was founded by Liang Wenfeng, and he reportedly funded the DeepSeek startup with his hedge fund.
But where did Liang Wenfeng get the computing power to develop DeepSeek?
MIT Technology Review says that Liang, who has a background in AI, bought a slew of Nvidia A100 chipsets, which are highly capable in the field of artificial intelligence. He did this before they were banned in China, and they have been instrumental in shaping DeepSeek.
How to access DeepSeek?
Despite being a Chinese-made app, the app is readily available in the US on the Apple App Store, and you can access the experience on its website as well, which is chat.deepseek.com. However, you will have to log in to start using the experience.
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Are Nvidia and other tech giants worried about DeepSeek?
In the world of generative AI, we have mostly heard news originating from the United States, with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Claude making major breakthroughs in the space. Yes, China has also had its fair share to play in this, but mostly the conversation has revolved around the United States.
Now, DeepSeek has taken to headlines and is dominating them, including the fact that it is a low-cost alternative to the likes of ChatGPT and reportedly isn’t far off behind them. This has shaken up the US markets.
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, has also responded, praising DeepSeek R1. “deepseek’s r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price,” Altman wrote on X. He added, “we will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases.”
The launch of the DeepSeek bot has troubled Nvidia as well, which is known for making hardware that powers AI breakthroughs. On Monday, Nvidia’s market cap value saw the largest one-day drop in US history, with a staggering $600 billion wiped off its valuation. Reports suggest that DeepSeek uses chips that are not as advanced as Nvidia’s latest offerings. This challenges the belief that top-tier chipsets are necessary for advancing generative AI—a notion upheld by companies like Meta and OpenAI.
Is DeepSeek different from ChatGPT or Google Gemini?
While the core experience remains the same compared to ChatGPT and the likes of Gemini—you enter a prompt and you get answers in return—the way DeepSeek works is fundamentally different compared to ChatGPT and the LLM behind it.
This is because DeepSeek is an open-source large language model, which works on inference-time computing. What you need to know here is that this technology saves a lot of money and computing power. This is how DeepSeek works and differentiates itself from the likes of OpenAI.
