Mint Primer | DeepSeek: A Chinese marvel or OpenAI copy?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. DeepSeek has challenged big tech, proving AI can be efficient without costly graphics processing units (GPUs) or massive data centres. Now Microsoft is probing possible unauthorized access to OpenAI data by a group linked to DeepSeek.
Are Chinese AI models just illegal copies? AI lab DeepSeek shocked big tech by training its open-source R1 model on Nvidia’s lower-capability H800 chips for under $6 million—far less than the billions spent on OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called R1 “impressive", while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei noted its near-frontier performance at low costs. Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger chose R1 over OpenAI for his startup, Gloo.
DeepSeek’s low-cost, energy-efficient, open-source AI could democratize access, challenging Microsoft, Google, Meta and Nvidia while proving advanced AI can be built without a huge outgo. Read more: DeepSeek’s breakthrough is a pivotal moment for the democratization of AI There is deep-seated mistrust of Chinese products, services, companies and tech platforms in the US. Amodei argues DeepSeek has shown a natural step in cost cuts.
But since a Chinese company led this advance, it caused a stir. Investor Gavin Baker noted that the $6 million cost excludes prior research, and such training is only possible if a lab has invested hundreds of millions and has access to large computing clusters. Microsoft is probing possible unauthorized access to OpenAI data by a group linked to DeepSeek.
Ironically, OpenAI itself is facing copyright violation suits in the US and India too. Alibaba’s Qwen handles long inputs but needs high memory. Baidu’s Ernie Bot 4.0 excels in search but lags ChatGPT in performance.
Read more on livemint.com
