Last
week,
Chinese
startup
DeepSeek
launched
a free
AI
assistant
that it
says
uses
less
data at
a
fraction
of the
cost of
incumbent
services.
By
Monday,
the
assistant
had
overtaken
U.S.
rival
ChatGPT
in
downloads
from
Apple's
(AAPL.O),
opens
new tab
app
store. |
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Liang
Wenfeng,
DeepSeek
AI CEO.
Chinatalk
Media |
Sohu |
|
Tech
startup
DeepSeek
hit by
cyber
attack
amid
surge in
popularity
Nilay
Seetharaman
-
Technology
Tell Us
USA News
Network
HANGZHOU,
CHINA -
Chinese
tech
startup
DeepSeek
reported
a cyber
attack
on
Monday
that
hindered
new user
registrations
on their
site.
The
company,
known
for its
AI
chatbot
that's
making
waves in
the tech
industry,
announced
it had
faced
“large-scale
malicious
attacks”
on its
services.
Existing
registered
users,
however,
were
able to
log in
without
issues,
according
to
DeepSeek.
Last
month,
DeepSeek
gained
significant
attention
in the
AI field
with the
release
of a new
AI model
that it
claimed
matched
the
capabilities
of
models
from
U.S.
firms
like
OpenAI,
the
creator
of
ChatGPT.
Additionally,
the
model
was
touted
as more
cost-effective,
utilizing
expensive
Nvidia
chips
more
efficiently
for
training
the
system
on vast
amounts
of data.
The
chatbot's
accessibility
increased
further
with its
debut on
Apple
and
Google
app
stores
earlier
this
year.
By
Monday,
DeepSeek’s
AI
assistant
had
risen to
the top
as the
No. 1
free app
on
Apple’s
iPhone
store.
Its
surge in
popularity
sparked
discussions
about
the
competition
between
the U.S.
and
China in
AI
development.
However,
some
U.S.
tech
industry
analysts
expressed
concerns
that the
Chinese
startup
had
managed
to rival
leading
American
companies
in
generative
AI at a
fraction
of the
cost.
DeepSeek,
founded
in
Hangzhou,
China in
2023,
launched
its
first AI
large
language
model
later
that
year.
AI
models,
from
ChatGPT
to
DeepSeek,
rely on
advanced
chips
for
their
training.
Since
2021,
the
Biden
administration
has
expanded
bans
aimed at
preventing
these
chips
from
being
exported
to China
and used
to train
AI
models
by
Chinese
firms.
However,
in a
paper
last
month,
DeepSeek
researchers
claimed
that the
DeepSeek-V3
was
trained
using
Nvidia's
H800
chips,
costing
under $6
million.
Though
this
detail
is
disputed,
the
assertion
that
less
powerful
chips
were
used
compared
to the
advanced
Nvidia
products
restricted
by
Washington,
along
with the
relatively
low
training
costs,
has led
U.S.
tech
executives
to
question
the
effectiveness
of tech
export
controls.
DeepSeek,
a small
startup
founded
in
Hangzhou,
China,
in 2023,
remains
relatively
unknown.
It
emerged
the same
year
search
engine
giant
Baidu
released
the
first
Chinese
AI
large-language
model.
Since
then,
numerous
Chinese
tech
companies,
both
large
and
small,
have
released
their AI
models.
However,
DeepSeek
has
become
the
first to
be
praised
by the
U.S.
tech
industry
for
matching
or even
surpassing
the
performance
of
state-of-the-art
U.S.
models.
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