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January 29, 2025News piece sources by Gunaprasath Bupalan
Chinese AI company DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley with the release of an open-source version of its reasoning model, R1. Industry leaders have been abuzz with speculation about the implications of DeepSeek’s achievement, with some hailing it as a groundbreaking innovation and others casting doubt.
DeepSeek’s R1 Model: A Game Changer?
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen lauded DeepSeek’s accomplishment, calling it “one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen.” Benchmarks suggest that R1 rivals or surpasses OpenAI’s o1 model in certain areas. DeepSeek claims a significant cost advantage as well, reportedly training their models for a mere £4.4 million compared to the hundreds of millions spent by leading American companies.
This feat is even more remarkable considering U.S. sanctions that restrict the sale of advanced chips to Chinese companies. The MIT Technology Review suggests these sanctions may be inadvertently driving innovation. The article highlights DeepSeek’s success as an example of how such restrictions can incentivise startups to prioritise efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration.
Skepticism and Conspiracy Theories
However, not everyone is convinced. Curai CEO Neal Khosla offered a more cynical view, suggesting DeepSeek is a “CCP state psyop” manipulating costs to undercut American competitors and dominate the AI market. Notably, a Community Note attached to Khosla’s post points out the lack of evidence for his claims and highlights his father’s financial ties to OpenAI.
Journalist Holger Zschaepitz expressed concerns about the broader economic implications. He posits that DeepSeek’s success, if confirmed, could pose a significant threat to U.S. equity markets. A Chinese company’s ability to produce a leading-edge model at low cost and without advanced chips could cast doubt on the billions of dollars being poured into AI infrastructure by American companies.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats?
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan countered Zschaepitz’s concerns, arguing that DeepSeek’s achievement could ultimately benefit American companies as well. He reasons that cheaper and easier model training would lead to a surge in demand for real-world AI applications, which in turn would drive up the need for computing resources, benefiting hardware providers.
Open Source and Collaboration: The Key to Progress?
DeepMind’s Yann LeCun offered a perspective emphasising the importance of open research and collaboration. He acknowledged DeepSeek’s use of open-source tools like PyTorch and Llama from Meta, highlighting how DeepSeek built upon existing work to achieve its breakthrough. LeCun argues that DeepSeek’s open-source approach allows everyone to benefit from their innovations.
DeepSeek’s AI Assistant Tops Charts
The intense debate surrounding DeepSeek has piqued consumer interest. As of Sunday afternoon, DeepSeek’s AI assistant has dethroned ChatGPT to become the top free app on the Apple App Store.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/26/deepseek-gets-silicon-valley-talking/