Chinese tech startup DeepSeek was founded just over a year ago but has just achieved a breakthrough that has been compared to a "Sputnik moment" in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), according to CNN.
On January 20, DeepSeek launched the DeepSeek R1 chatbot application, which is said to have almost the same capabilities as famous competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT GPT-4, Meta's Llama, and Google's Gemini.
DeepSeek Hit by Cyberattack After Tech Stocks Shake Up
Notably, China's software is developed at a much cheaper cost and in a context where the country has been restricted by the US for many years from accessing the most advanced AI chips for national security reasons.
DeepSeek says it spent just $5.6 million to build DeepSeek R1, compared to the hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars that American companies have poured into AI technology.
DeepSeek Logo
Meta said last week it would spend $65 billion on AI development this year. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last year that the AI industry needs trillions of dollars in investment to develop advanced chips for data centers that can run complex models.
DeepSeek R1 uses Nvidia's H800 chip, which was produced after the US banned exports of the company's most advanced chip, the H100, to China in September 2022. In October 2024, the US banned exports of the H800 as well. DeepSeek R1 is open source, meaning other companies can test and build on it to improve its capabilities.
According to DeepSeek, the R1 model outperformed OpenAI's oi-mini model on multiple evaluation metrics, while Artificial Analysis' research rated the Chinese app better than software from Google, Meta, and Anthropic in terms of overall quality.
According to CNN, DeepSeek R1 has risen rapidly in the app store rankings, surpassing ChatGPT on January 27 and now has nearly 2 million downloads.
Wall Street shakes
Wall Street was shaken by the emergence of DeepSeek R1 as the Nasdaq Composite Index fell more than 3%, shedding nearly $1 trillion, according to The Guardian .
AI chipmaker Nvidia was overtaken by Apple as the most valuable public company in the US after its shares fell 17%, wiping out nearly $600 billion in market value. Google parent Alphabet also lost $100 billion and Microsoft lost $7 billion. A number of other US tech companies also fell in value on January 27.
Prominent tech investor Marc Andreessen, a supporter of US President Donald Trump, called the emergence of DeepSeek R1 a “Sputnik moment” in AI and one of the most impressive breakthroughs he has ever seen. The Sputnik moment refers to the Soviet Union’s shock launch of a satellite into orbit during the Cold War.
DeepSeek’s “cut your coat according to your cloth” approach to releasing the DeepSeek R1 has led many to question whether American companies are overspending on AI development. However, some also argue that it is too early to dismiss America’s role as an innovator and leader in the technology sector.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/trung-quoc-tung-chatbot-dau-chatgpt-co-phieu-pho-wall-chao-dao-boc-hoi-1000-ti-18525012807291468.htm
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