DeepSeek: The Open-Source AI Challenging US Tech
A new Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek, is making waves with its latest creation, DeepSeek-R1, launched on January 20, 2025. Founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the company focuses on building advanced AI models. What’s catching everyone’s attention is that DeepSeek-R1 delivers high performance while using far fewer resources than similar models from big names like OpenAI and Google.
If you don’t believe it, they tell you on their home page:
DeepSeek-R1 is open-source under the MIT license, meaning anyone can access and use its code for research or development. Because of its strong reasoning skills and affordability, many see it as a serious competitor to proprietary AI models. It’s available through a mobile app and API, making it useful for coding, math, and problem-solving tasks.
The U.S. stock market reacted sharply to DeepSeek’s rise. Just a week after its launch, on January 27, the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 3.5%, with Nvidia’s stock plunging nearly 17%- wiping out over $340 billion in market value. Investors are worried that DeepSeek’s breakthrough could shake up the AI industry and threaten U.S. tech dominance. With competition from China growing, American tech giants face pressure to rethink their strategies.
Are the concerns valid? Is it any good? How do the results compare to Perplexity or ChatGPT? I am not sure, as I cannot sign up, apparently due to cyber attacks.
DeepSeek-R1’s launch has sparked excitement and concern, but key questions remain unanswered. Is it truly a breakthrough, or is the hype premature? With China making strides in AI, U.S. tech dominance faces new challenges, as seen in Nvidia’s massive stock drop. However, restricted access- reportedly due to cyberattacks- raises doubts about its reliability and security. Investors may be overreacting (as they tend to do), but if DeepSeek delivers on its promises, it could reshape the AI landscape.