DeepSeek's Al assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple's iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor. Part of what's worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese startup has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative Al at a fraction of the cost.
That, if true, calls into question the huge amounts of money U.S. tech companies say they plan to spend on the data centers and computer chips needed to power further Al advancements.
But hype and misconceptions about DeepSeek's technological advancements also sowed confusion.
“The models they built are fantastic, but they aren’t miracles either,” said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who follows the semiconductor industry and was one of several stock analysts describing Wall Street’s reaction as overblown.
“They’re not using any innovations that are unknown or secret or anything like that,” Rasgon said. “These are things that everybody’s experimenting with.”
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1400077361/1738183232/articles/lOmewY3Wt1738233576050/v1MLtTyos1738233998183.jpg]
WHAT IS DEEPSEEK?
The startup DeepSeek was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou, China and released its first Al large language model later that year. Its CEO Liang Wenfeng previously co-founded one of China’s top hedge funds, High-Flyer, which focuses on Al-driven quantitative trading.
DeepSeek began attracting more attention in the Al industry last month when it released a new Al model that it boasted was on par with similar models from U.S. companies such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and was more cost-effective in its use of expensive Nvidia chips to train the system on huge troves of data. The chatbot became more widely accessible when it appeared on Apple and Google app stores early this year.
But it was a follow-up research paper published last week — on the same day as President Donald Trump’s inauguration — that set in motion the panic that followed. That paper was about another DeepSeek Al model called R1 that showed advanced “reasoning” skills — such as the ability to rethink its approach to a math problem — and was significantly cheaper than a similar model sold by OpenAI called 01.
“What their economics look like, I have no idea,” Rasgon said. “But I think the price points freaked people out.”
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1400077361/1738183232/articles/lOmewY3Wt1738233576050/C1jsfSFJl1738234012111.jpg]
THE ‘SPUTNIK’ BACKDROP
Behind the drama over...
That, if true, calls into question the huge amounts of money U.S. tech companies say they plan to spend on the data centers and computer chips needed to power further Al advancements.
But hype and misconceptions about DeepSeek's technological advancements also sowed confusion.
“The models they built are fantastic, but they aren’t miracles either,” said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, who follows the semiconductor industry and was one of several stock analysts describing Wall Street’s reaction as overblown.
“They’re not using any innovations that are unknown or secret or anything like that,” Rasgon said. “These are things that everybody’s experimenting with.”
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1400077361/1738183232/articles/lOmewY3Wt1738233576050/v1MLtTyos1738233998183.jpg]
WHAT IS DEEPSEEK?
The startup DeepSeek was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou, China and released its first Al large language model later that year. Its CEO Liang Wenfeng previously co-founded one of China’s top hedge funds, High-Flyer, which focuses on Al-driven quantitative trading.
DeepSeek began attracting more attention in the Al industry last month when it released a new Al model that it boasted was on par with similar models from U.S. companies such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and was more cost-effective in its use of expensive Nvidia chips to train the system on huge troves of data. The chatbot became more widely accessible when it appeared on Apple and Google app stores early this year.
But it was a follow-up research paper published last week — on the same day as President Donald Trump’s inauguration — that set in motion the panic that followed. That paper was about another DeepSeek Al model called R1 that showed advanced “reasoning” skills — such as the ability to rethink its approach to a math problem — and was significantly cheaper than a similar model sold by OpenAI called 01.
“What their economics look like, I have no idea,” Rasgon said. “But I think the price points freaked people out.”
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1400077361/1738183232/articles/lOmewY3Wt1738233576050/C1jsfSFJl1738234012111.jpg]
THE ‘SPUTNIK’ BACKDROP
Behind the drama over...
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Apple(Digital) - 1 Issue, January 31, 2025