What is DeepSeek?
Founded by Liang Wenfeng in May 2023, the Chinese startup has challenged established AI companies with its open-source approach. According to Forbes, DeepSeek’s edge may lie in the fact that it is funded only by High-Flyer, a hedge fund also run by Wenfeng, which gives the company a funding model that supports fast growth and research.
What is DeepSeek R1?
Released in full last week, R1 is DeepSeek’s flagship reasoning model, which performs at or above OpenAI’s lauded o1 model on several math, coding, and reasoning benchmarks. What makes R1 most interesting is that, unlike other top models from tech giants, it’s open-source, meaning anyone can download and use it. However, DeepSeek has not disclosed R1’s training dataset. So far, all other models it has released are also open-source.
What is the significance of DeepSeek’s V3 model?
DeepSeek’s V3 model cost $5.6 million to train, a number that is being circulated (and disputed) as the entire development cost of the model. As the AP reported, some lab experts believe the paper is referring to only the final training run for V3, not its entire development cost (which would be a fraction of what tech giants have spent to build competitive models).
Concerns and limitations
One drawback that could impact its long-term competition with o1 and other US-made models is censorship. Chinese models often include blocks on certain subject matter, meaning that while they function comparably to other models, they may not answer some queries (see how DeepSeek’s AI assistant responds to queries about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan here).
Privacy concerns
Data privacy worries that have circulated around TikTok — the Chinese-owned social media app that is now somewhat banned in the US — are also cropping up about DeepSeek. The policy outlines that DeepSeek collects plenty of information, including but not limited to: IP address, unique device identifiers, and cookies, date of birth, username, email address and/or telephone number, and password, and more.
Conclusion
DeepSeek’s success highlights a sea change in AI that could empower smaller labs and researchers to create competitive models and diversify the field of available options. For example, organizations without the funding or staff of OpenAI can download R1 and fine-tune it to compete with models like o1. Given how exorbitant AI investment has become, many are speculating that this development could burst the AI bubble.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the significance of DeepSeek’s V3 model?
A: DeepSeek’s V3 model cost $5.6 million to train, a number that is being circulated (and disputed) as the entire development cost of the model.
Q: What are the limitations of DeepSeek’s models?
A: One drawback that could impact its long-term competition with o1 and other US-made models is censorship. Chinese models often include blocks on certain subject matter, meaning that while they function comparably to other models, they may not answer some queries.
Q: What are the privacy concerns surrounding DeepSeek?
A: Data privacy worries that have circulated around TikTok are also cropping up about DeepSeek. The company’s privacy policy outlines that it collects plenty of information, including IP address, unique device identifiers, and cookies, date of birth, username, email address and/or telephone number, and password, and more.
Q: How does DeepSeek’s open-source approach impact the AI landscape?
A: DeepSeek’s open-source approach could empower smaller labs and researchers to create competitive models and diversify the field of available options.
