China’s DeepSeek AI Chatbot Rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Offering Superior Cost-Effective Performance
China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot has taken the world by storm, rapidly advancing to rival the US-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT, despite operating with far fewer resources. This cost-effective, open-source chatbot has become a sensation in global app stores, even surpassing ChatGPT in certain regions, including the US.
DeepSeek’s rise has raised eyebrows due to its remarkable performance with minimal infrastructure. Developed and trained on older-generation chips due to US restrictions on China, DeepSeek’s efficiency outpaces that of tech giants using thousands of advanced chips. Despite using only 2,000 chips and working with a budget of less than $6 million, DeepSeek is rivaling and even surpassing OpenAI’s $100 million ChatGPT model, with some benchmarks highlighting its superiority.
The launch of DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech industry, causing stock drops in major companies like Nvidia, whose shares fell nearly 18%, the largest single-day loss since March 2020. The emergence of DeepSeek has sparked a debate on the costliness of large language models (LLMs) and the growing competition from low-cost alternatives. Figures like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and former President Donald Trump have acknowledged the AI’s impact, with Trump describing DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley.
