DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, faced significant outages on its website after its AI assistant became the top-rated free app on the U.S. App Store. The company limits new registrations due to a large-scale cyberattack on its services. DeepSeek’s AI is powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model.
deepseek's r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price.
we will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases.
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 28, 2025
Its creators claim it rivals the most advanced AI models globally. The app has surged in popularity among U.S. users since its release on January 10. This milestone challenges the idea of U.S. dominance in AI technology.
I don’t fully understand why the market is (maybe?) reacting to DeepSeek the way it is, but, if the thesis is that AI development & applications is plummeting in cost, the real impacts are outside of the AI/chip firms.
Which organizations can use this form of intelligence best?
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) January 27, 2025
It also raises questions about the impact of Washington’s export controls targeting China’s advanced chip and AI capabilities. The DeepSeek-V3 used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, reportedly spending less than $6 million.
DeepSeek faces cyberattack-induced outages
A lot of the discussion over DeepSeek focuses on which companies win & lose. For everyone not working at an AI lab, the implications are a little clearer: we will continue to see accelerated AI development, & the odds of hitting major roadblocks decreases as more labs experiment
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) January 26, 2025
This has sparked debate within the tech community. Some experts dispute the claims about the chips’ specifications. They note that the chips were less powerful than the most advanced Nvidia products that Washington aims to keep out of China.
DeepSeek is a small startup founded in 2023 in Hangzhou. It gained prominence when many Chinese tech companies launched their own AI models after Baidu released the first Chinese AI large-language model. DeepSeek stands out as the first to be recognized by the U.S. tech industry for matching or surpassing the performance of leading U.S. models.
The rise of DeepSeek highlights the dynamic and competitive nature of the global AI industry. It emphasizes that technological leadership can emerge from unexpected places, challenging established norms and policies.
