BBC News
Deepseek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup, broke through the download chart of the app, sank high -tech stock, and created headlines around the world.
In January, the latest model Deepseek R1 was released. He stated that this is much less to create, comparable to the technology developed by Chatgpt-Maker Openai with its ability.
Its popular and potential investors have wiped out billions of dollars from the market value of chip giant NVIDIA, and as expected by many people, an artificial company in the United States is booming. I wondered if it would dominate the intelligence (AI) market.
President Donald Trump has described it as a “morning call” for US companies.
What is artificial intelligence?
To understand why DeepSeek has caused such an upset, AI and their abilities can make your computer look like a person.
Machines are usually trained with a huge amount of information, and by recognizing the patterns, you can learn and solve problems using technology.
The final result is software that allows people to talk or predict shopping habits.
In recent years, it is the best technology behind chatbots such as Chatgpt -and DeepSeek. It is also called generated AI.
These programs are learned again from online texts and vast amounts of data, including images, so that new content can be created.
However, these tools can also create falsehoods, often repeat the bias included in the training data.
Millions of people use tools such as Chatgpt to support everyday tasks, such as writing emails, summary of textbooks, answers to questions.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is the name of a free AI chatbot, which looks very similar to Chatgpt, and works.
In other words, it means that it is used in many of the same tasks, but there is room for debate how well it works compared to rivals.
According to a task such as mathematics and coding, it is as powerful as the O1 model of OPENAI released at the end of last year.
Like O1, R1 is a “reasoning” model. These models simulate how humans infer through problems and ideas, and gradually generate responses.
DeepSeek says that this was able to do this cheaply -the researchers behind it, a training that is a part of “$ 100 million or more” suggested by Openai boss Sam Altman when discussing GPT -4. It claims that it costs $ 6 million (£ 4.8 million).
It also seems to be able to minimize US restrictions on the most powerful chips reaching China.
It is reported that DeepSeek founder has built a NVIDIA A100 chip store that has been banned from exports to China since September 2022. Some experts think that these chips were combined with cheaper and more sophisticated ones.
In addition, DeepSeek uses less memory than rivals, and ultimately reduce costs to execute tasks for users.
Due to the combination of performance and cost, DeepSeek’s AI Assistant has become the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store when released in the United States.
The company stated that it was hit by a “large -scale malicious attack”, and the company has temporarily restricted registration.
The website has also been stopped.
Like many other Chinese AI models, Baidu’s Ernie or DOUBAO BYTEDANCE -DEEPSEEK is trained to avoid politically sensitive questions.
When the BBC asked the app on June 4, 1989 what had happened at Tiananmen Square, Deepseek did not provide details on the slaughter, a Chinese tabut pick for government censorship. 。
Who is behind DeepSeek?
DeepSeek was established by Liang Wenfeng in December 2023 and released the first major AI language model the following year.
Liang, who graduated from the University of Zhijiang after acquiring electronic information engineering and computer science, is not well known. But he is now finding himself in international spotlights.
He has recently been seen at a meeting hosted by China’s finest LI Qiang, reflecting the rise in Deepseek in the AI industry.
Unlike many American entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, Liang also has a financial background.
He is a hedge fund CEO called HIGH -FLYER, which is called an investment decision by analyzing financial data using AI. In 2019, HIGHFLYER became the first quantum hedge fund in China to raise 100 billion yuan ($ 13 million).
He said in his speech that year, “Why wouldn’t it be China if the United States could develop its quantitative trade department?”
In a rare interview last year, he stated that the Chinese AI sector could not continue to be a follower.
Liang was asked why DeepSeek’s model surprised many people in Silicon Valley, saying, “I was surprised to see Chinese companies participating not only as followers but also as innovators.
But that brought out scrutiny from the world leader.
Australia has banned government devices and systems Deepseek, which is taking national security risks.
Several data protection authorities around the world have requested DeepSeek to clarify how to handle personal information to save on a server based in China.
Italy blocked the Deepseek app on January 30 and ordered the company to stop processing citizens’ personal information on data protection concerns.
Why did US companies like NVIDIA hit?
Deepseek’s achievements have overturned the belief that a larger budget and the highest -layered chips are the only way to advance AI. This is the prospect that created uncertainty about the future of high -performance chips.
“DeepSeek proves that the state -of -the -art AI model can be developed with a limited calculation resource,” said Wei Sun, a principal AI analyst in AutOunt Point Research.
“In contrast, Openai, which has been evaluated as $ 157 billion, monitors the ability to maintain the dominant advantage of innovation and justify its large -scale evaluation and expenditure without a significant profit. I’m facing. ”
It seems that the cost of DeepSeek has been reduced on January 27 of Deepseek. This is a widespread sale, including chip manufacturers and data centers around the world, reducing high -tech -oriented Nasdaq by more than 3 %.
NVIDIA’s stock price has plummeted 17 % on Monday before it began to recover on Tuesday.
The chip manufacturer was the most valuable company in the world when measured by market capitalization.
However, after Apple and Microsoft on Monday, Forbes reported that it fell to third place after reducing the market value from 3.5 tons to $ 2.9 ton.
DeepSeek is a personal owned company. In other words, investors cannot purchase shares on major exchanges.
How did China react to the impact of Deep Shik?
The rise of DeepSeek is a major boost for the Chinese government, which is trying to build independent technology from the western part.
The Communist Party has not yet commented, but the Chinese state -owned media was eager to say that Silicon Valley and Wall Street giants were “sleeping”.
“In China, Deepseek’s progress is celebrated as a proof of the country’s growth technical abilities and independence,” said Marina Zhang, Associate Professor of Sydney Institute of Technology.
“The company’s success is considered to be a verification of China’s innovation 2.0. This is a new era of its own country’s technical leadership promoted by young entrepreneurs.”
But she warned that this emotion could lead to “technical isolationism.”
Additional reports by Joan da Silva and Liv McMahon