DeepSeek, despite its sudden rise to prominence and popularity, has not yet left the media spotlight. The competitive Chinese start-up, by presenting its innovative and cost-effective products, has attracted not only the attention of AI enthusiast and fans but also and that of competitors. One of them, OpenAI, has submitted accusations against DeepSeek, which has led to the DeepSeek AI controversy.
DeepSeek’s Breakthrough in the AI Market
AI news media has not remained silent about the DeepSeek. In January, the company announced innovative AI models that are not only competitive with products in the U.S. market but are also created at significantly lower costs. This has sparked discussions about the AI giant’s success and their competitiveness.
DeepSeek is a start-up owned by the Chinese stock trading company HighFlyer – it is run by Chinese businessman Liang Wenfeng. Additionally, the company’s goal was to develop AI technologies similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, so they are very pleased with their achievement.
Until 2021, DeepSeek acquired huge quantities of computer chips from U.S. chip manufacturer Nvidia, which contributed to the development of its AI systems.
On January 10, DeepSeek released its first free chatbot application, which was based on the new DeepSeek-V3 model. This application gained significant user attention when, in the U.S. market, its downloads skyrocketed on Apple’s free mobile app platform, partially limiting user access to the service.
Everyone, especially DeepSeek’s competitors, became highly interested in how the startup managed to develop a product with significantly lower costs. The truth may lie in the fact that the developers of this product used a more advanced data analysis approach, known among scientists as the mixture of experts method. This technique allowed for a reduction in the time required for transferring data from one place to another.
What Lies Behind the Model That Shook the AI Market and Sparked the DeepSeek AI Controversy?
Nevertheless, amidst significant AI progress and the latest cutting-edge advancements, these events are also overshadowed by some not-so-positive aspects. One of the AI industry leaders, OpenAI, has stated that the Chinese startup may have used the ChatGPT creator’s AI models to develop a superior chatbot. OpenAI claims that this is why they are currently reviewing accusations against DeepSeek, further fueling the DeepSeek AI controversy.
Together with Microsoft, OpenAI is investigating whether patented technology was obtained illegally – through the use of the distillation technique. Initially, OpenAI leaders responded positively and were impressed by the results. However, later, an OpenAI representative stated:
“We know that groups in [China] are actively working to use methods, including what’s known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced U.S. AI models.
We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models and will share information as we learn more. We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology and will continue working closely with the U.S. government to safeguard the most advanced models being built here.”
Final Thoughts
Recent DeepSeek AI controversy show that the U.S. market is concerned not only about a potential new competing leader but also about possible intellectual property violations. Discussions on data privacy and national security threats are becoming louder, making it likely that we will continue to observe how developments in this area unfold.
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Sources: The Guardian, The New York Times
