What Is DeepSeek AI? All About Chinese ChatGPT Rival [Video]

DeepSeek AI, a rapidly emerging player in the artificial intelligence industry, is beginning to challenge U.S. control over the AI industry.

Developed by the Chinese startup DeepSeek, the open-source AI chatbot has not only gained traction in China but has also captured the attention of global markets, including the U.S.

Newsweek contacted DeepSeek and the White House for comment on this story via email.

What Is DeepSeek AI?

DeepSeek AI is the brainchild of Liang Wenfeng, a former hedge-fund manager who transitioned to AI development in 2023. The platform’s flagship model, DeepSeek-R1, was launched this January and quickly climbed to the top of the U.S. Apple App Store, surpassing ChatGPT in downloads.

DeepSeek’s appeal lies in its free-to-use model for consumers, underpinned by its R1 reasoning engine. This is said to integrate reinforcement learning to achieve high performance with minimal computational resources.