What Google, OpenAI and other AI leaders think about DeepSeek

Breaking Development: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has emerged as a significant competitor in the AI landscape, claiming to match the performance of leading AI models at a fraction of the traditional cost.

Core Innovation and Market Impact: DeepSeek’s announcement of training a competitive large language model for just $5.6 million has sent shockwaves through the tech industry.

• The company’s app quickly rose to #1 on Apple’s App Store across multiple countries, accumulating over 1.6 million downloads
• Nvidia’s stock dropped 17% as investors responded to the potential disruption of established AI development costs
• This development challenges the prevailing narrative that AI advancement requires massive infrastructure investments, exemplified by OpenAI’s recent $6.6 billion funding round

Industry Response: The emergence of DeepSeek has sparked divided reactions among tech leaders and AI companies.

• Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas publicly supported DeepSeek’s achievement
• Box CEO Aaron Levie warned against restrictive AI regulation in light of such breakthrough developments
• OpenAI investor Josh Kushner raised concerns about transparency and potential export control violations

Technical Controversy: Claims about DeepSeek’s development resources have sparked debate within the tech community.

• DeepSeek stated it used only 2,000 older-generation Nvidia H800 chips
• Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang suggested the company actually has access to around 50,000 H100 chips, potentially violating US export controls
• The significant disparity between DeepSeek’s claimed $5.6 million training costs and OpenAI’s reported $3 billion raises questions about transparency

Security Concerns: Major AI platforms and recent events have highlighted potential risks associated with DeepSeek.

• Both ChatGPT and Google Gemini expressed caution about security risks
• A December security flaw in DeepSeek’s system revealed vulnerability to account hijacking through prompt injection
• The platform recently reported experiencing a “large-scale, malicious attack”

Looking Ahead – Balancing Innovation and Security: While DeepSeek’s cost-efficient approach could democratize AI development, questions about security, transparency, and compliance with international regulations may impact its global adoption and influence future AI governance frameworks.