Cheyenne Suarez

Article (news)

DeepSeek dims shine of AI stars

Agence France-Presse

<div><br/></div><p>LAS VEGAS -- China-based DeepSeek shook up the world of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) early this year with a low-cost but high-performance model that challenges the hegemony of OpenAI and other big-spending behemoths.</p><p>Since late 2022, just a handful of AI assistants -- such as OpenAI&#x27;s ChatGPT, Anthropic&#x27;s Claude, and Google&#x27;s Gemini -- have reigned supreme, becoming ever more capable thanks to multi-billion-dollar investments in engineers, data centers, and high-performance AI chips.</p><p>But then DeepSeek upended the sector with its R1 model, which it said cost just $6 million or so, powered by less-advanced chips.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/1/27/deepseek-chinese-ai-firm-making-waves-in-silicon-valley-2144" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DeepSeek: Chinese AI firm making waves in Silicon Valley</a></div><p>While specialists suspect DeepSeek may have cost more than its creators claim, its debut fueled talk that GenAI assistants are becoming just a regular commodity, thanks to innovation and market forces.</p><p>&quot;The first company to train models must expend lots of resources to get there,&quot; said CFRA senior equity analyst Angelo Zino.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/2/17/chatbot-vs-national-security-why-deepseek-is-raising-concerns-1306" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chatbot vs national security? Why DeepSeek is raising concerns</a></div><p>&quot;The second mover can get there cheaper and more quickly.&quot;</p><p>At a HumanX AI conference in Las Vegas this week, Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf said it is getting less expensive to launch GenAI models -- and less important which one people use.</p><p>&quot;I feel like we are moving to this multi-model world, which is a good thing,&quot; Wolf said, pointing to the muted reception given to the most recent version of ChatGPT.</p><div><strong>Stay flexible</strong></div><p>At the conference, OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil pushed back against the notion that all models are created equal.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/2/4/afp-implements-steps-to-be-safe-from-deepseek-other-forms-of-ai-1732" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AFP taking steps to be safe from Deepseek, other forms of AI</a></div><p>&quot;That&#x27;s actually not true,&quot; Weil said.</p><p>&quot;The days of us having a 12-month lead are probably gone, but I think we have a three- to six-month lead, and that is really valuable.&quot;</p><p>Weil said OpenAI plans to fight to keep that narrowing edge over its competitors.</p><p>With 400 million users, San Francisco-based OpenAI has the advantage of being able to use data from massive traffic to continually improve its models, Weil explained.</p><p>&quot;OpenAI has the Google advantage of being the thing that&#x27;s in everybody&#x27;s minds,&quot; said Alpha Edison equity firm research director Fen Zhao.</p><p>Jeff Seibert, chief of the accounting and AI start-up Digits, agreed that OpenAI will stay ahead of the pack but added that he expects the gap to eventually close.</p><p>&quot;For advanced use cases, yes, there will be a lot of advantages,&quot; he said of OpenAI&#x27;s position.</p><p>&quot;But for a lot of stuff, it won&#x27;t matter as much.&quot;</p><p>Seibert advises entrepreneurs to design their technology to allow them to swap out GenAI models, affording them flexibility in a quickly changing industry.</p><div><strong>Cash burn</strong></div><p>Improved use of chips and new optimization techniques have driven down the cost of designing the large language models (LLMs) that power ChatGPT, Gemini and their rivals.</p><p>An open-source approach taken by some LLMs is credited with helping accelerate innovation by making the software free for anyone to tinker with and improve.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2025/2/11/chinese-auto-giant-byd-to-integrate-deepseek-broaden-self-driving-tech-1433" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chinese auto giant BYD to integrate DeepSeek, broaden self-driving tech</a></div><p>The valuation of closed-model startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI has likely peaked as their &quot;first-mover advantage dissipates,&quot; according to Zino.</p><p>Japanese investment colossus SoftBank pumped $40 billion into OpenAI in February in a deal that valued the startup at $300 billion -- almost double what it was last year.</p><p>“If you&#x27;re burning a billion dollars a month, which I think OpenAI is, you have to keep raising money,&quot; said Jai Das of private equity firm Sapphire Ventures.</p><p>&quot;I have a hard time seeing how they get to a point where revenues are higher than the amount of cash they burn.&quot;</p><p>Anthropic raised $3.5 billion in early March, valuing the champion of responsible AI at $61.5 billion.</p>

DeepSeek dims shine of AI stars

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DeepSeek dims shine of AI stars

Agence France-Presse,

Thomas Urbain

Published March 13, 2025 11:43 AM PHT

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