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There's no doubt about it, DeepSeek R1 is an Extremely. Big. Deal. There's a great deal of hype in the AI business, as is the method with many new technologies. But sometimes a beginner gets here which truly does have a real claim as a significant disruptive force. DeepSeek R1 is such an animal (you can access the model for yourself here).

As reported by CNBC, DeepSeek app has currently surpassed ChatGPT as the leading totally free app in Apple's App Store. And numerous tech giants have seen their stocks take a major hit. This includes Nvidia, which is down 13% today.

On the face of it, it's just a brand-new Chinese AI model, and there's no shortage of these launching weekly. But there are two essential things which make DeepSeek R1 various.

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First, people are discussing it as having the exact same performance as OpenAI's o1 design. To summarize, o1 is the current world leader in AI models, due to the fact that of its ability to reason before offering an answer. This makes it incredibly powerful for more complex tasks, which AI typically fights with.

The reality that a newcomer has actually jumped into contention with the market leader in one go is impressive.

Second, not just is this new model providing practically the same performance as the o1 design, but it's likewise open source. This implies that any AI researcher or engineer across the world can work to improve and tweak it for various applications.

That's a quantum leap in regards to the prospective speed of development we're most likely to see in AI over the coming months. This is no longer a circumstance where one or 2 companies manage the AI area, now there's a substantial worldwide neighborhood which can add to the progress of these remarkable new tools.

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To add fuel to the fire, the DeepSeek household of models was trained and developed in just two months for a paltry $5.6 million. This compares to the billion dollar development costs of the significant incumbents like OpenAI and Anthropic.

To state it's a slap in the face to these tech giants is an understatement. The Chinese hedge fund owners of DeepSeek, High-Flyer, have a performance history in AI development, so it's not a complete surprise. What is a surprise is for them to have actually created something from scratch so quickly and cheaply, and without the benefit of access to state of the art western computing innovation.

Obviously ranking well on a benchmark is one thing, but the of people now try to find real life proof of how models perform on a day-to-day basis. Early reports recommend that the DeepSeek criteria aren't lying, with a variety of users embracing it for AI programming in preference over Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5.

Surprisingly the R1 model even seems to move the goalposts on more creative pursuits. One Reddit user published a sample of some imaginative writing produced by the design, which is shockingly great.

Early days for DeepSeek

My own testing suggests that DeepSeek is also going to be popular for those desiring to use it in your area by themselves computers. In 3 small, admittedly unscientific, tests I did with the model I was bowled over by how well it did.

In one test I asked the model to help me track down a non-profit fundraising platform name I was looking for. A standard Google search, OpenAI and Gemini all failed to provide me anywhere near the right answer. DeepSeek hit it in one go, which was incredible.

We are living in a timeline where a non-US company is keeping the original mission of OpenAI alive - truly open, frontier research that empowers all. It makes no sense. The most entertaining result is the most likely.DeepSeek-R1 not just open-sources a barrage of designs but ... pic.twitter.com/M7eZnEmCOYJanuary 20, pyra-handheld.com 2025

It's early days to pass last judgment on this brand-new AI paradigm, however the outcomes so far seem to be incredibly appealing. One thing I did notice, is the reality that triggering and the system prompt are exceptionally crucial when running the model in your area.

Without a good prompt the outcomes are absolutely average, or at least no genuine advance over existing regional models. But when it gets it right, my goodness the sparks absolutely do fly.

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Nigel Powell is an author, columnist, and consultant with over thirty years of experience in the innovation industry. He produced the weekly Don't Panic innovation column in the Sunday Times newspaper for 16 years and is the author of the Sunday Times book of Computer Answers, released by Harper Collins. He has actually been an innovation expert on Sky Television's Global Village program and a routine factor to BBC Radio 5's Men's Hour.

He has an Honours degree in law (LLB) and a Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA), and his work has made him a specialist in all things software, AI, security, personal privacy, mobile, and bbarlock.com other tech developments. Nigel currently resides in West London and delights in spending time meditating and listening to music.

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