TechCrunch Startup News DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app
May 13, 2025
DeepSeek, a new AI chatbot app from a Chinese lab, has skyrocketed in popularity, topping app store charts. Its growth raises questions about the U.S. competition in AI and the appetite for AI chips. The discussion reveals potential regulatory hurdles and data security concerns looming over this novel technology. Amidst the chatbot's success, experts ponder what this means for the AI landscape and the future of digital interaction.
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DeepSeek's Rapid AI Rise
- DeepSeek quickly rose to the top of app store charts, surprising the AI industry with its efficient and competitive AI models.
- Its models perform well on benchmarks and come at a lower cost, challenging established players like OpenAI and Meta.
Origin and Technical Strategy
- DeepSeek was founded by a Chinese hedge fund specializing in AI-driven trading, spinning off as a separate AI lab.
- They build their own data centers and overcome US hardware export bans by using less powerful chips.
Unique Talent and Reasoning AI
- DeepSeek aggressively recruits young AI PhDs and even non-CS talent to broaden understanding.
- Their advanced reasoning models provide self-fact-checking abilities, improving reliability in complex domains.