China's AI startup Deepseek takes global tech by storm

DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the global tech sector with the unveiling of its new artificial intelligence (AI) model, which directly competes with offerings from Google and OpenAI.

Immediately after launch, the company attracted all the attention of the tech world when it announced that the DeepSeek model required less than $6 million worth of computing power from Nvidia H800 chips. 

The new AI, DeepSeek-V3, has surpassed rivals like ChatGPT and OpenAI, quickly ranking as the top free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.

What is new in the DeepSeek AI model?

DeepSeek is a China-based AI start-up created by Liang Wenfeng, an entrepreneur based in Hangzhou, who also operates the hedge fund High-Flayers.

The application is entirely free to use, and DeepSeek’s R1 model offers performance comparable to OpenAI's. DeepSeek’s chatbot is accessible without the $20 monthly subscription fee that OpenAI charges.

Additionally, the DeepSeek model was effectively trained using less advanced AI chips, positioning it as a breakthrough in innovative engineering. 

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The DeepSeek-R1 is 20 to 50 times more affordable to use than OpenAI.

However, some have publicly expressed skepticism about DeepSeek's rapid success.

It is pertinent to mention here that Liang's fund revealed in March 2023 through its official WeChat account that it was "restarting," shifting its focus from trading to dedicating resources towards the establishment of a "new and independent research team to investigate the core of AGI" (Artificial General Intelligence). Later that same year, DeepSeek was established.